NOTICE

I apologize for not posting more of my artwork. I have been very busy with school so I have not had much time to draw. However, I have finally managed to set up my own account on deviantART where I will be posting most of my art. Not to say I will be discontinuing this blog, but that may be the case in the near future. For now, please check out my work here. Thank you very much!

Hill Hollow

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The most recent project I have completed, and possibly one of the best I have done so far in my opinion. My little sister went trick-or-treating with some of her friends. I adored the costume our mom bought her. It was a red and black Victorian style dress that she planned on wearing to her Christmas dance. It appeared formal enough. She dressed as a vampire. She told me one of the two friends who were planning on staying the night directed them to a reservoir on the way home. There was a woods nearby where they took photos. Seth, one my friends and the photographer of the image above, did an amazing job and captured some truly frightening but magnificent photographs. Catherine was also the other friend who was present. Shortly after Halloween, we had to create a movie poster whether in a theatrical release style or a billboard style. I chose the latter of the two. I used this picture of my sister, filtered it in Photoshop, and added the name of her two friends and my boyfriend as the actors. It almost makes me wish this movie was real, although I am not usually a fan of scary movies. I used a name that I heard from my boyfriend as the title of the movie. I hope he does not mind that I used it without his permission. *laughs*
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I really like the effect I chose for the photograph. The text for Hill Hollow is somewhat difficult to read even though I tried to make it easier by adding a texture. I am pleased with how it almost looks like an actual movie poster.
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Created November 19, '08.
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Photoshop CS3.
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Picture (C) Alice Falling

Crunchy Critters

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Yet another project we had to do in digital design. We had to create a cereal box with the name of Crunchy Critters. Instead of choosing something cute and adorable, the masochistic part of me decided to take the name to a literal meaning. *laughs* This was also the first project in this class that I worked on at home. I wanted to shade the cat the way I usually shade my own Photoshop images, but the tablet was harder to use on the school computers. The settings were different and I could not figure out how to change them. So I completed this project over the weekend.
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I love how the cat turned out although I was picturing more of a tabby cat instead. I did not want to take too much time drawing out stripes though. The hands and foot look a little strange but from a cartoon point of perspective I thought it would do. The photograph of the spoon I took was blurry and I could not capture a sharper image so the spoon ended up pixelated. The drop shadows were fun to insert. I wish I could have used a better font for the text at the bottom of the picture but I did not feel like exerting too much effort on that section. Overall, this was a fun project to create.
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Created November 15, '08.
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Photoshop CS3.
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Picture (C) Alice Falling

Horrified

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Another project I did in my digital design class. This was assigned close to Halloween, and I was still suffering from a Twilight obsession. Our project was to create an image that was disturbing in same way. I do not think this image is altogether disturbing, apart from the blood, but I still met the requirements. Except I did not use an original photograph and we were suppose to, but my teacher let it slide this time for which I was thankful.
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The blood was too pink before and I needed help changing the hue. The vampire teeth look somewhat fake, but I did not put too much effort in to that area. It took a lot of manipulation, but overall I was extremely pleased with the end result. I only wish I had made the image larger from the beginning.
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Created November 4, '08.
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Photoshop CS3.
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Picture (C) Alice Falling

Cyborg Photocollage

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I have not updated my page in quite some time. I have been too busy working on schoolwork to draw anything more than brief sketches in my free time. I have several pieces I did in my drawing class, but my teacher is holding on to them so I am unable to post them up. I hope to talk to him soon so I will be able to. In my digital design class, I have a few projects I did in Photoshop that turned out to my liking. This is one of the projects we were required to do. We had to find images from the Internet and use them along with a photograph of ourselves in order to alter them and make it appear as though we were a cyborg or robot. I started out with a photo of myself that I took. Our teacher had metal skulls that we could use and, with much manipulation, I was able to pull my skin over the form and add electronic accessories to it. To top it off, I chose to have my head suspended in a tank of water or a fluid of some type. To my surprise, my teacher decided to send this piece to the Scholastics art show, although I do not think it is one of my best Photoshop works. I did have fun creating this image however.
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The face turned out slightly lopsided because I placed it at the wrong angle and had already done too much to go back and fix it. The "ear" I suppose it could be called was sloppily cropped but I tried not to make it noticeable. The watery effect was not exactly what I was aiming for but I could not find anything better. My favorite parts are the drop shadows cast by the wires and the eyes. I had the most fun with the eyes the most and disturbed many of my classmates in the process. *laughs*
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Created October 9, '08.
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Photoshop CS3. (Yes, we do get to use the new Photoshop! I do not like it as much as Photoshop 7. This is much harder to get used to.)
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Picture (C) Alice Falling

Victor

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Reference
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I recently began reading the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer and, despite the promises I made myself, I became hooked on to the series and felt the urge to draw a vampire character. This is Victor who is currently living in the 18th century in England. He is quite the ladies' man and is very popular among the higher class, as you can tell. I have not come up with a background about him yet, but he is looking for a partner who he can train in his footsteps. In case something should happen to him, he would have a successor.
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I spent all day Saturday working on this instead of cleaning my studio. I'm thrilled with the end result. I had some trouble getting him down on paper at first, but once I had the layout complete, it became much easier. I had to cut off his left foot because my scanner continued to create a gutter shadow from my sketchbook and I was too lazy to work around it. *laughs* I also messed up the arm and hand holding the wine glass. I could not get the perspective correct, so I just gave up and left it alone. Otherwise, I'm extremely pleased with the forshortening and the wrinkles in the clothing and chair. Also, this picture is not historically accurate, but that is not a concern due to my creative license. *laughs*
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Drawn October 11, '08.
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Pencil.
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Picture and character (C) Alice Falling

Holly

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I saw the movie Igor a few days ago with a friend. Igor is an adorable animated comedy-ish story that took a twist on Frankenstein and all monster related genres. One of the characters in the movie, the "Frankenstein" called Eva, inspired me to create a new character. I also wanted to do a mix of Frankenstein and Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Thus, Holly was born. I am still working on her character, but I developed a background for her with much help from my friend Alisha. Holly was created by a scientist/doctor who worked at an asylum between the late 18th century and early 19th century. There was a mental illness that was affecting young children and adolescents. Many of the victims were put in the care of the doctors at this certain asylum. This doctor had a small laboratory in his office where he used deceased victims as his studies in hopes that he would find a cure. While he was thumbing through one of his books, he came across the alchemical practice of creating life. In a sudden burst of inspiration, he began using various pieces from his victims to create life. He hoped that if he succeeded, his creation would have the same illness as the people they were made of. The doctor succeeded, but he found that his creation's mentality was normal, except for the fact she did not possess a soul and was therefore void of any emotion or individual thought. She could be killed in any normal method a human could die from (shot through the head, stabbed in the chest, drowned, poisoned, etc.) but otherwise, her body would not age. In a sense, she was immortal. When the head of the asylum discovered what the doctor had done, he was fired on the spot. However, since life had never been created before, they did not want to destroy the experiment seeing how she posed as no threat. Holly became the "ghost" that wandered through the halls at night, singing lullabies to calm the inhabitants. She continued to live in the asylum even though the employees who had been alive when she was created had passed on. She remained in the building for almost one hundred years. This is where Alisha's character comes in play, but that is the roleplay we plan to start soon. We still do not have all the kinks worked out yet.
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I doodled my initial sketch in pen while attending a service at church. I had planned on coloring it in Photoshop, but I did not have enough time. I needed to finish my Spirited Away picture, so I decided to leave it as a line art and color another picture of Holly I planned on drawing later. Her hair was somewhat of an experiment. I did not want to draw the individual strands like I normally do, and I also wanted to convey the feeling of a mass of tangles. It was fairly successful. Her eyes are also suppose to be black where the white normally is, but I did not think to color them in since I was assuming I was going to color it in Photoshop. That is a misleading detail. I was also going to add hair to the doll but I did not get the chance either. I am very proud of the hands. The little details I left out because I thought I was going to use Photoshop irk me, but this was a practice so I should not be too hard on myself. *laughs*
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Drawn August 21, '08.
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Pencil.
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Picture and character (C) Alice Falling

Howl's Moving Castle

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I am a huge fan of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli's works. I had this movie added somewhere in the depths of my Netflix queue, but I was patient to wait the fifty movies or so until it was time to watch it. My boyfriend was able to peak my interest to the point I moved the movie to the top of my list. I instantly fell in the love with it and also read the book it was based off of by Diana Wynne Jones. I cannot help but love the movie more than the book, although the book was still wonderful. The plot is much more complex and there are many additional characters that do not appear in the movie (although a few names are mentioned briefly). Calcifer was close to being my favorite character, but after watching the film a few more times, I couldn't help but fanboy over Howl. I am utterly jealous at how silky his hair is. *laughs* I was also able to get one of my friends addicted to the movie as well. I told her I had in mind a picture of Howl and Calcifer I wanted to draw, and she fiercely insisted I draw it. It took a weekend to sketch out the idea while using up another large stack of paper, and I finally found time to color it on Photoshop during the Labor Day weekend and several weekends afterwards. I looked up a large handful of coloring tutorials for the fire and wings. I plan on watching all seven Miyazaki movies and created a mini poster for each, similar to this one for Howl's Moving Castle. I have already seen four of the seven, so I am watching some of the ones I have already seen. Next is Spirited Away. This piece is dedicated to my boyfriend who inspired me to finally watch this beautiful film.
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I learned a new outlining technique in my drawing class that I wanted to try out. I quickly found it had its pros and cons. A pro was it made the line art look magnificent and created interesting lines. The cons were the graphite pencil I used smeared and created dust across my picture. I should have used a regular #2 pencil instead. Also, the lines are rather grainy although I did my best to fix that in Photoshop. However, I ran into a mishap shortly after fixing the line art. I started coloring the picture and realized I could not go about coloring it the same way I normally do. Calcifer was causing me some difficulty because Howl's fingers were in front of him while everything else was a haze behind him. The way I set up the layers would not allow me to do this, so I had to start from the beginning after I had all the base colors done. *sobs* I wasted an entire day on it, but it made me more determined to get it right the second time around. Thankfully said time around shocked me. This is my seventh completed picture in Photoshop that I've ever created, and instead of laying out all the base colors like I usually do, I picked one section (the hair, for example) and shaded and highlighted it until it was completed and I was able to move on. I started with Calcifer, who turned out quite lovely. When I finished Howl's face, I was utterly blown away at how I had shaded it. I had slapped on sections of shadows before working with them, not really paying much attention to what I was doing. The end result was baffling, and I am beyond pleased. This turned out far better than I ever imagined. *grins* I had a lot of trouble with his hair at first and I still do not like the hand he has by his side, but I am thrilled by the foreshortening I used with his outstretched hand and the rest of the coloring. I also had a little trouble with the background. I wanted the castle as the background image but I did not want to draw it, so I fumbled with some pictures I found on Google before arranging the background as is. His wings were a nightmare. I could not color the feathers correctly so I struggled with the shading and had to start over countless times. I also struggled with the clothing. His shirt turned out perfectly, but I started getting lazy on his jacket. I was slacking with the light source so I had to give myself a week's break before returning to it and finishing it. At last, it is finished after three or more weeks. I have you to thank, Corey. *smiles*
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Drawn August 24, '08.
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Pencil and Photoshop 7.
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Picture (C) Alice Falling; Characters (C) Diana Wynne Jones, Studio Ghibli, and Hayao Miyazaki

Mello

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Mello raised his head, tearing his eyes away from the laptop screen as he heard a soft digital beep. "Matt, what are you doing?"

The redhead hovered in front him, goggles pushed up into his hair as he grinned and held up a small silver camera. "Nothin’, just taking some pictures," he replied innocently, peering through the focal lens.

"I know that, dumbass. What I want to know is why you’re taking pictures of me." The blond’s eyes followed the boy like a hawk as Matt sidled around to the back of the couch.

Matt raised the contraption and snapped another photo. The image appeared on the screen a few seconds later. Mello’s face stared over his shoulder into the camera, crystal blue eyes narrowed quizzically and full lips parted slightly. His freshly acquired scar threw half his face into distorted shadows. Matt couldn't help but find it strangely alluring. "Well, there’s nothing else around here I can take pictures of." He brandished a hand at the empty apartment. "And I’m not allowed to go outside unless it’s for groceries."

Mello snorted, returning his attention to the computer. "Do whatever you want, you pervert. I just think it’s odd that you picked today of all days to take pictures when I’m in drag and not in my sexy leather."

"You’re sexy any day," Matt replied casually, earning a derisive laugh. "Just more today than you usually are."

"I hope you don’t put this in your scrapbook, Matty. What else do you have in there, photos of me in the shower or when you’re screwing me?"

"Scrapbooks are for girls. Oh, sorry, do you want some of me to put in yours?"

"Shove it."

Matt ran a gloved hand through his tangled hair and stared down at the blond, suddenly very serious. "Okay, in all honesty, I want something to remind me of you, something visual. The police have your name now. Kira could kill you any day, and then what would I be left with?"

There was a moment of tense silence as the words hung in the air. Mello’s thin, painted fingers hovered above the keyboard as the truth sank in. To Matt’s surprise, he let out a dry chuckle. "I didn’t know you were the kind of person to carry around a picture of your lover in your wallet. How sentimental." Mello finally twisted his head to sneer at his partner. "But suit yourself. Don’t expect me to get up and pose for you."

The redhead smiled back, relieved, a pout lingering on his lips. "But I was hoping you’d strip for me," he teased, raising the camera and stealing another image as Mello reached for the chocolate bar on the coffee table.

"Go to hell," he retorted, but he winked as he snapped a chunk off the candy bar and cocked his head to the side for another camera shot.
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Ever since I finished reading the Death Note series, I've wanted to draw a picture of Mello. I wrote it on my To-Do list on my white board, but I haven't gotten to it until now when the summer is over. *laughs* I did manage to draw two pictures of Mello and Matt and one of Mello when he's younger, but I wanted a piece where he is his normal age in the series. Because my sister was pestering me and because I thought it would be fun as well, I drew Mello in drag, mainly because he is another seemingly gender-confused character. *laughs* I had the most difficult time trying to find a reference photo for the picture. I had originally taken a few pictures of myself in drag (while my sister laughed), but I wanted to change the pose before I started sketching so I deleted the pictures. I could not find anything on the web that was what I had in mind. I eventually took a couple pictures with my phone and quickly scribbled some basic guidelines. I wanted to go with a typical pose, but when I took the photos with my phone, I thought it would be more interesting to fancy Matt had taken the photos of Mello, so I went with a cropped, close-up, and slightly crooked perspective and later added the details you see when looking at a digital camera screen. I also came up with a little background story to the sketch when I was taking a walk outside and decided to take a few hours to type it up and post it along with the art piece (which is the italicized text above).
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I like the camera details I added. It makes the picture appear more abstract, especially when my focal point is in the top left-hand corner and not close to the center. I was considering drawing a blur where the laptop is now to make it appear as though Matt had his fingers in the way, but it looked awkward so I left it out. Mello's skirt looks strange because the photos I took were dark and I was not able to see the creases clearly. The laptop looks horrid, but I wanted to keep it because it is included in the story and I needed to fill the empty space. I planned on coloring the image in Photoshop, but after I finished the line art, I did not feel like it was Photoshop-worthy. So I started coloring his shoulder with colored pencil, then quickly realized I was going to ruin the piece. It was better to leave it as it was even though the lines were difficult on the eyes.
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Drawn August 10, '08.
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Mechanical pencil.
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Picture and Story (C) Alice Falling; Characters (C) Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata

Death Note

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I wanted to draw a collaborative piece similar to the Wolf's Rain picture I drew last year for the Death Note series. I was originally going to include Misa, Near, and Mello as well, but I quickly found out I would not have enough room to draw all of them. I drew the two main characters in that case, Light Yagami (right) and L or Ryuuzaki (left). Instead of drawing the two in their normal outfits, I wanted to try something darker since I planned on inking the picture.
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I think I might have overworked the shadows on Light's face, though I liked the hatching I used. His lip ring turned out lopsided, and the shadows on his shirt come out across his stomach too far because I was planning on inking the whole shirt black. I realized it would be too much black after I finished the jacket, but I had already made some marks so I had to work around them. I like his necklaces and the net shirt. Ryuuzaki was most likely the best of the two. I originally drew him blowing bubblegum, but it made it difficult to tell who I was trying to portray. The band-aids were an impulse. I thought he looked rather plain next to Light so I needed to add an accessory to his face. The hatching I used around his cross necklace is a mess and could have been done cleaner. I like how I managed to draw the slouching position he is famed for. I knew I needed to draw a background so I threw a city scape behind them and made it look as though they were standing on a rooftop. I struggled to finish this piece because my pens starting failing halfway through the inking process. I managed to buy a few more, but my thinnest ones stopped working entirely and I had trouble inking in tiny details. In the end, this turned out very professional and I'm pleased with the product. My sister wanted me to make a copy for her so she could hang it in her locker when school started again. *laughs* My boyfriend should also be thrilled because I successfully drew a background.
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Drawn July 25, '08.
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Pen and Sharpie marker.
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Picture (C) Alice Falling; Characters (C) Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata