Beep Beep!

Alpha Sigma Phi @ UA Love Bus Shirt Design, ink, Spring 2013

______Earlier in the spring semester, I received the opportunity to plan and ink out an illustration for my brother's fraternity, Alpha Sigma Pie.  I mean Phi.  It wound up on a T-shirt dedicated to a trip they all took, and the leader of their fraternity (president? grand overlord? czar? I'm not familiar with Greek life doings) even said he'd consider dubbing me their official T-shirt artist for next year.

______Designing T-shirts for a few extra shillings?  That'd sure put a jingle in my step!




______(I wasn't the one who colored it in and did the text, just the drawing, but if I were designing that part, too, I'dda picked a more regal font that curved the fraternity name at the top cough justsayingcough)

Comic Book Heroine

______I remember coming across this very skirt on the internet before, so when I saw it in the real world, I knew that I had to pummel my way through the store to snatch it up.  It reeks of cartoony fabulousness and is stretchy to the max, both qualities worthy of a gold star in my book.  A mannequin was donning the last one in my size, and I'm less than proud to say that I undressed the poor thing to try it on, which was most likely probably definitely against store policy.  I suppose that makes me more of an evil villain than a benevolent heroine, but ah well...  We all surrender to our dark side on occasion.  I'm back in the light now, I promise.




______Succumbing to corruption wasn't all so bad, though.  It was a poignant moment, though slightly sweet, like the darkest of dark chocolates, and who knows?  Perhaps next I will be brazen enough to do something as dastardly as parking in one of those pregnant people only parking spots even though I am clearly not a pregnant lady.



______Anyway, I'll keep this post short and bittersweet since I've got to dash off to my pool job, aka emptying trash cans and not saving people if they are drowning and making certain that no meddling little punks jump the fence.  I'll see you classy bastards later.

______Ali out!



Skirt: Know Style
Top: it's a red shirt who knows
Socks: Forever 21
Necklace: from my dearest brother
Oxford heels: Jeffrey Campbell

______PS: Mother and I attempted some jumping slash flying pictures, but we just kept ending up with ridiculous shots similar to this:

Swirls and Twirls

______You guys wrote really sweet comments on that last post.  I hope I didn't come off as a mopey little sponge, but sometimes I've just gotta treat this blog like a diary, take out my feather-topped gel pen, and scribble out any minor troubles and woes that float around in my head.  That way, the sadness goes poof! and the sparkly, bubbly feelings can shine and glint brighter than a bald man's head in the sunlight.

______I tend to doubt myself a ton because I'm a perfectionist and like for everything to be done as quickly, efficiently, and mess-free as possible.  I need a lesson in patience, clearly, and I'm not talking about the kind of patience where one waits quietly in a dentists office playing Pokemon, because that's super simple.




______But ah, let us speak of happier things!  Like Pokemon, that's a happy thing.  Why, my transparent purple gameboy still rests snugly in bedside drawer, and within it, Pokemon Crystal and the Caterpie that I named after my older brother.  For those of you not familiar, Caterpie is a wimpy caterpillar-like Pokemon that is well, quite wimpy.  No stronger than a flimsy pool noodle, no more toxic than washable markers.  Many years ago, for young sibling rivalry purposes, I caught one of these elusive Caterpies and named my brother after it.  Burn, baby, burn.

______Even to this day, my dear brother and I still name each other after the most pathetic Pokemon each new generation spits out.  He is 22 and I am 20.  Both of us have evolved in terms of appearance and age, but we've both remained snarky little turdbuckets at heart.




______In other news, I think that smiling for the camera is much easier when you're wearing bright lipstick.  I've tricked my mind into believing that doing so makes my pearly whites actually appear white.  That's the power of Pine-Sol, baby... I mean, uh, lipstick.



Top: Charlotte Russe
Skirt: via Lotus Botique
Sandals: Franco Sarto
Zebra bracelet: Charming Charlie (them zebras be snoggin' up a storm)
Cicada earrings: Etsy

Wonders and Blunders

______Drawing.  Illustrating.  Art.

______What I have yearned to do my entire life, what I knew I wanted to pursue since I could put a crayon to paper, and yet almost all the time, my mind is plagued with one thought about it: was it meant to be?  I still can't classify myself as an artist; I feel that's too kind of a term for my skill set.  Am I even creative enough to be an artist?  Should art just be a side thing, a "fun thing" that people know me by?

______Will I ever be able to reach that checkpoint of artsy awesomeness?

______Sigh.

______It's my fault, I know.  I should draw more.  I should try new things.  I should get better!  I see all these rad artists around me, ages and occupations varying like the nuances of pink in the sky as it sets, and their skills both frighten and propel me: some are middle school art prodigies who paint swirling landscapes in a few brushstrokes, some are straight out of college and have already secured rad art jobs, and others are artists who are known in their area and teach in the comfort of a university with a close-knit art department.  I just wish I could share a level of their talent and artsy knowledge.




______There's doubt lurking in my mind that I wasn't cut out for art.  And it comes and goes every now and then, like ominous storm clouds, and somehow hasn't sucked me down into the core of the earth yet.  I'm all right, I'll give myself that.  But I'm definitely nothing spectacular.  Sure, to people who aren't an art major, or not the most creative, even a doodle of a turd with a little fly rising from it will cause them to gasp in awe.  But to me, even what I'd call my loveliest works don't seem to be satisfactory enough.



______With that in mind, I've been intimidated (in a totally good way) into illustrating a little story that I'm nearly done editing.  These drawings began as a whisper of scribbly lines on my biology notes and were quick to develop into something more defined in my sketchbook.  With my story plastered in my brain, I got to it and finally sketched out and inked these bad boys.  The lines are already being filled with color as you read this!  The characters and locations are mine, and I was pleased to note that as drawings, they match the writing and what was in my head.

______So here's the result of the past two or so weeks of my brain sobbing over how "meh okay decent" of an... artist... I am.  I must improve and I must try new things and I will!  That's what I'm going to work at the remainder of the summer and with my art classes next semester.  And uh, being more positive and junk.  YERG.

______Viking screeeeeech!



______And a color update: Pretty happy with the first three, but the last one gave me fits; though I do understand that it should be much less bright and much more murky in lieu of the story!

The Bottom of the Well WIP storyboard panels, ink + copic markers, Summer 2013

Far Out, Man!

______What time is it, you ask?  Why, it's groovy o'clock!



______I unwrapped both this floaty bohemian dress and these clunky loafer platforms on my birthday.  I'm not sure how well the two go together, but heeeey, we can just pretend that mashing polar opposites looks good, in lieu of the disco era.

______These shoes have given me tons of amusement.  Besides being a blast to stomp around in, their groovy-to-the-max appearance gives me the urge to disco in place whilst doing that pointy finger thing.  Yeah, the pointy finger thing.



______To say I received an abundance of head tilts today would be an understatement; I received many, and I received them well.  The world was my oyster, and I was the shining pearl that clomped majestically above it, eradicating any person or cat or stalk of zombie asparagus who was brazen enough to hold my gaze.  I clomped on my enemies.  I clomped through the grocery store and clomped over the old lady who decided she was going to get her cheese cut before mine.  I clomped through a peanut patch and when I reached the other side, there was nothing but a field of well-churned peanut butter in my hindsight.

______I clomped most fervently and with the clomping passion of star-crossed lovers.

______I clomped vertically into the air, and clomped all the clompin' way to outer space.  I clomped on Mars and through wormholes, and I even clomped on burning white stars, extinguishing them to puffs of fresh smoke in shades of purple and grey.  I am the clomper, the conquerer, the destroyer, the giver, the all-seer.




______And now I must wash my tea mugs and organize my underwear drawer, for even those at the top of the Clomp Pyramid have their mundane duties.

______Stay funky fresh, you cool, cool cats!



Dress: birthday pressie, Va Va by Joy Han
Loafer heels: birthday pressie, ASOS
Aqua bracelet, earrings: Charming Charlie

Twenty Years Young

______On Saturday, I leveled up in the real world, turning the ripe and slightly moldy age of 20.  As I rose from my bed that morning, I was astonished to find I was donning a rad plaid business suit and tacky tie pattered with tiny hot dogs.

______And in that moment, I was suddenly hit with the realization that now I'm a real adult.  Not a fake one, but a real one who has to pretend she likes discussing the state of the economy and whether yellow curtains or burgundy ones would better accentuate the living room.  I nodded acceptance at this, glad that adult-me could at least wear something as special as a hot dog print tie, and brazenly kissed the rebellious teenage world goodbye.

Freedom Flowers

______Sometimes, I am rather impressed by modern medicine.

______I am impressed by how downing two button-sized tablets can make a throbbing headache fizzle down to nothing in half an hour, and how even tinier white tablets can nearly obliterate the symptoms that we females encounter on a monthly basis.

______Taking medicine when I was little was an awful process that my mother and I both loathed to endure.  The only way my mom could get me to drink that awful stomach-soothing pink liquid would be by pouring it in a small cup, dousing it in chocolate syrup, and plopping an M&M in it.  I would still regard it contemptuously, as if a nasty wasp that would sting my insides was hidden beneath all that sugar, but choked it down nonetheless.  For the chocolate syrup and M&M, young Ali argued in her head.  And nothing more.



______Even today, I find it difficult to immediately turn to medicine when some part of my body is pleading to be subdued, and I only use it when it's absolutely necessary, or if I might die, or if not taking it would cause all of Australia to crack like an egg and be sucked into the earth's core.

______Something to that degree, you know.  Wouldn't want to have a hoard of Australians tucked in kangaroo pouches hopping fiercely toward me, one hand equipped with a deadly lizard, the other a swirling lasso.

______(I hope I didn't offend any Australians.  If it makes you feel any better, I live in Alabama, and you can ridicule how everyone here is a redneck and drives tractors everywhere.  Because that's basically the case.  And well, not to brag, but my John Deere is bedazzled with plastic jewels and decapitated Barbie heads.  It's primary uses are for Walmart errands and hunting squirrels for dinner.)

______Anyway.




______I just wish I could step into my backyard, pluck a funny-looking plant from the ground, shove it down my throat, and boom--headache gone, fatigue banished, innards soothed...  I'm all for natural junk.  The closer to earth, the better.  But hey, maybe that's why I like wearing a crown of flowers upon my head?



______I hope you guys have an excellent Fourth!  Be sure to scare the shit out of your neighbors by hurdling fireworks toward their houses.

Flower crown: DIY with Kelsey
Dress, booties: Charlotte Russe
Necklace: Charming Charlie
Gold cuff: Lulu*s