Tag Archives: crayon

Starburst: the Mandala

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This mandala warms your spirit with the heat of a thousand very tiny suns.

This mandala warms your spirit with the heat of a thousand very tiny suns.

A lot of skew on this one. It’s unfortunate that I didn’t take any sort of notes during the mandala project. There are a few for which I can remember my exact inspiration, mindset, and/or intention, but for the most part, I have these charming designs whose origins have grown mysterious. Triangles and starbursts are a pretty common theme in this series, while dots are less common.

One thing I am realizing, looking at this image, is that there is something gross stuck to my scanner. It’s on every image I’ve scanned for weeks. It would probably behoove me to clean the scanner, and to Photoshop the gross thing out of previously scanned but not yet posted images.

There’s been so much new art going on around here that it’s been weeks since an old mandala has made it into this blog. Just now, someone posted that Kurt Vonnegut quotation about going into the arts onto my Facebook page with the message that my drawings were getting better. So Dragon was right, and, as we’re rapidly learning, the snake was wrong. You can, in fact, get better with practice.

Just a Simple Dragon

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Needlenose, an aerodynamic dragon

Needlenose, an aerodynamic dragon

This is a small little drawing, I’d say, but it feels complete, for what it is. Needlenose, being aerodynamic, requires no extraneous parts or ostentation. There’s something to be said for pared down design and utilitarian simplicity.

When I dream at night, my dreams usually unfurl like feature-length reels of film: passion, intrigue, and drama in 3 acts. I am a spy, a soldier, a detective. I travel through time. I change genders, I change age, I change race. I change species. I complete quests and solve mysteries. On the rare occasions that I dream myself back in high school or completely naked, I manage to power through the dream without any noticing that I forgot my locker combination or my pants.

My childhood daydreams were even larger. I needed my own island to protect myself from the world. Literally: an island. Specifically: a mansion on an island where I would live in complete seclusion with my books and my faithful manservant. I would write my novels, unaffected by the rest of the world, a one-way system of communication in which my ideas would be received by an adoring public without my ever needing to venture from my protective base. But I know now that what a person dreams and what a person needs are often worlds apart.

Needlenose needs no adornments to fly, and I don’t need an island to exist happily in this world.

I still dream big. But I live economically. Perhaps my lifestyle is not quite so stripped to the bare essentials as this thin little dragon, but it is richer in art than it is in hard currency, and I’m still creating.

Happiness is a Warm Mandala

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Apparently it has been 3 weeks since QWERTYvsDvorak has featured an irregular crayon mandala. This travesty cannot stand. I present to you: a golden brown flower themed mandala, a tempting treat for a paper honeybee.

A soothing 6-sided mandala

A soothing 6-sided mandala

Something kind of earthy about this one. The center part reminds me of the sunflowers The Man sometimes brings home, and the green circles in the middle remind me of malachite beads.

Not much art news to report, although I’ve been thinking about some recent projects that I haven’t touched in a while. Does the graphic novel need 5 parts, or is it now complete in 3? Can I possibly redo some of the work on Alphabet of Desire that I accidentally lost somewhere in my house? Losing this paper really put the brakes on the project, and due to its spiritual nature, I worry that I won’t get the same results if I do the work again, and furthermore, although I lost the physical sheet of paper, I know it’s somewhere in this house, that I specifically put it someplace that it would turn up again in the future, when I wasn’t looking for it. That seems to be the project my brain wants to get back to.

A Simple Geometry

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Diamonds, triangles, and squares

Triangles and diamonds

Once I read a Navajo fairy tale in a picture book about a weaver who became some obsessed with perfection in her work that she became trapped in her own art, as if she sewed her soul into the design. Navajo weavers always leave a “way out,” some imperfection in their pattern, to prevent this spiritual entanglement, a fact of which I was reminded when we visited Tuba City in the Navajo Nation last week.

This mandala also reminds me of that legend. The turquoise color and the shapes reflect some of the art we saw on our journey. Of course, I never have to worry about leaving myself a way out of my mandalas, since it’s been many years since I even imagined that perfection was possible in drawings. This one is pretty tight though, even if it skews a bit.

 

 

It’s comically dragonalicious

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Frantically uploading blog pages while my horrible cat (not to be confused with the amusing cats in my comics–this cat is truly a trial) tries to sneak her little furry foot onto the keyboard. She’s sort of languid and lackadaisical about it, as if she either doesn’t notice she’s doing it, or somehow thinks that I won’t notice she’s doing it, even though I’ve removed her foot from the keyboard 20 times in 5 minutes. She knows very well what she’s doing. Now she’s purring atop a mountain of junk mail.

Good grief.

As an antidote to all that, here is a humorous dragon, whose sole purpose in life is allowing me to gratuitously use the word “flocculent.” Look it up.

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Capricorn, a flocculent dragon

Beyond dragons and mandalas, I’m at a bit of a crossroad here. I have tons of T-shirt ideas, but I’m spending 10 or 15 hours a week on the comics, and my tendonitis can’t take that much more time on the table. I’ve got about a month to get the shop in order for the holidays. I don’t want to give up anything. But I can’t do everything.

I may try cartooning with pencil and paper on vacation and see if I like the results. It might be a little faster, if less impressive and less colorful. Anyway, just going where the road takes me.

Mandalas Make Your Mind Go Round

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There’s plenty of room for this colorful rainbow mandala in your happy Tuesday, is there not?

I am a little ray of sunshine.

I am a little ray of sunshine.

Love the colors in this one, and the rosace quality of the mandala itself. Without making an effort to wear my crayons down equally, I would most likely compose all drawings as rainbows, or in shades of blue. I do try to explore the full chromatic spectrum, but it takes work, especially when exploring oranges and yellows and neutrals, to which I am not at all drawn.

This is one of the mandalas that might get turned into a T-shirt in the future. And speaking of T-shirts, if you would like to purchase a fine one, RedBubble is still offering a site-wide sale on shirts until midnight tonight. Just visit the QWERTYvsDvorak RedBubble shop, select any of our exquisite merchandise, and use coupon code RBTEES15.

Thursday, Take Me Away!

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For your consideration, a brief gallery of potentially enlightening or confusing images.

Hissteria, a confounding dragon. I suspect that Hissteria mesmerizes you, and then eats you.

Hissteria, a confounding dragon. I suspect that Hissteria mesmerizes you, and then eats you.

There is something very pleasing to me about this dragon’s dimensionality and weirdness. I can see her twisting in the wind, like those flying snakes that turn their bodies into sails, except Hissteria is more of a corkscrew. As you squint at her spiraling form, asking your spouse, “What is that thing? Do you see it? What is it?” Hissteria strikes, devouring you headfirst. Or maybe she’s just misunderstood.

A well-formed mandala

A well-formed mandala

Here’s your weekly mandala; this is a fairly regular one, with hints of traditional quilt design along with some of the crystal theme that I examine more later.

A small percentage of the mandalas in this collection were pieces I worked on a bit but never felt satisfied with. I never threw any out, but there are some that certainly feel unfinished, and also at a dead end. This is one of them:

Actually, something about it feels kind of subatomic to me. This mandala is not as disappointing as it originally seemed.

Actually, something about it feels kind of subatomic to me. This mandala is not as disappointing as it originally seemed.

3-Dimensional Dragons

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If Cox took all the energy they direct into trying to sell me cable and long distance for 2 devices I don’t even own and devoted it to maintaining the network that renders the device I do own fully functional, this post would not be so late.

For your Friday pleasure, please browse an assortment of 3D dragons, I models with my own little hands.

Dragon number 1 sprung forth into existence some 2 or 3 years ago when a game-maker friend mentioned that 4 little lumps of clay were reserved for the construction of a dragon figurine to be used in a game she had created. I took control of the project and came up with this handsome fellow, Perhaps his details are a little rough, but he’s only 1 inch high, and my hands aren’t that small.

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It took 4 shots to encompass all his adorable qualities.

It took 4 shots to encompass all his adorable qualities.

Next on our list we have a rather old dragon. In 1993, student teaching at a private elementary school for hippie children with rich grandparents, I came across a lump of dried clay, in which I couldn’t help but see the whorls and angles of a dragon’s face. The principal told me that I was wasting my time, that the lump would crumble, that it was too thick to ever be fired. I ignored him and coaxed this friendly face into the world.

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A rather serene dragon, with only a little chip missing from his horn.

Finally, completing our triumvirate of dragons, a dragon pendant I made in 2006 while playing with my ex-boyfriend’s daughter.

Of course, the fuchsia fellow on the right is actually a cat, not a dragon, but he came into existence at the same time as the dragon, and they are the best of friends and go everywhere together.

Of course, the fuchsia fellow on the right is actually a cat, not a dragon, but he came into existence at the same time as the dragon, and they are the best of friends and go everywhere together.

Wait, what’s that you say? You want a hardworking bubblegum punk mandala before you go. BAM. Enjoy.

Pentagram mandala is in the house!

Pentagram mandala is in the house!

In case you wondered what Dragon is up to, Dragon is doing well, thanks! I already have one comic for next week, and if I finish a second one this weekend, maybe I’ll try to create them on a M-W-F schedule.

Dragon at Work; Dragon at Rest

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The world wants a little cheering up today, and these unconventional dragons are happy to serve their purpose. 

Grizeldi, a Dragon Boat. Grizeldi is a working dragon

Grizeldi, a Dragon Boat. Grizeldi is a working dragon

I was a working dragon myself today. Still retaining a couple freelance writing clients enables me to bang out words in exchange for money. Writing is my especial talent, just as cutting through the glacial blue waters of the Norwegian fjords is Grizeldi’s. He takes pride in his sturdy wooden construction and his ability to transport a heavy cargo of pillage, plunder, and loot. 

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Portia, a Hoarding Dragon. Portia’s hoard is a small one, as she is a small dragon and has not had much time to accumulate it, but it is a high quality hoard.

Meanwhile, Portia slumbers upon a bed of gold pieces. Dragons require a great deal of rest.  

Here’s a Spectacular Hodgepodge of I Don’t Know What

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Finding myself without any pithy observations regarding art, writing, or the intersection between the two, allow me instead to offer a completely random assortment of recent-ish images.

Let's call it a snake in the grass

Let’s call it a snake in the grass: torn paper mosaic from 2013

I’m pleased that today was a good day, writing-wise. Got about 3500 words out on this graphic novel script, which is nothing to sneeze at, although I could have done a few thousand more words if I’d been stern with myself.

Have a pointy mandala why not?

Have a pointy mandala why not? This one puts me in mind of a compass rose. It’s quite skewed.

I also read and critiqued a friend’s essay and discussed it in what was essentially a one-woman workshop. As an old veteran of Iowa-style workshop (I’ve taken 10 of those suckers, 6 at the graduate level) I can offer pretty good feedback. Would that I could read my own writing the way I read others’.

October 2013

October 2013 I apparently cut out some weird looking pumpkins. The one in the center is by far the saddest jack-o-lantern I have ever created.

This bulletin board is one I didn’t like well enough to put in my original gallery of bulletin boards, but it’s OK. Eventually, I’ll get them all up. The quote, if you can’t read it, is from Percy Bysshe Shelly: “There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky.” Since I have space considerations, and my target audience is on average, 8 years old, I often use small segments of quotes. This one continues,  “which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!”