Even though there are too many posts with my face on them recently, this still has to happen - because in case you every wondered how much I love teal and sparkles the answer is, this much:
Exactly this much.
I may look slightly derpy in this picture, but make no mistake - I AM ALWAYS VERY EXCITED WHEN I PAINT MY NAILS THIS COLOR. The color is 'Sinful Colors - Nail Junkie' which is a damn exciting title for this nail polish considering the lack of sexy I'm working here. Instead, I am literally trying to show the world even though I know that it will never appreciate it as much as I do.
WHAT NOW SUCKAS, BECAUSE YOU'RE LOOKING AT THIS REGARDLESS.
Win.
I suppose that I could take pictures of myself holding onto the bottle of nail polish with the nail color on in dramatic lighting and close up shots like the rest of the internet seems to like to... but then you'd get something like this:
Look, my nail polish isn't even the right color. But it's still sparkly.
Monster claws and crazy eyes.
No one wants that. Except maybe me, because when I looked at that I after I took it I loled a little bit.
But as you can tell, I like nail polish. I seem to be focusing almost it as much as I focus on art recently (It's not real art... but it could be art too so too bad! I forgot that I'm trying to say 'art' in these posts more). Simple pleasures I suppose, and I look real simple in these puppies... youuuuuuuu're welcome. Because teal and sparkles are so pretty.
As you may have surmised, I periodically do internet searches on myself, just to see how well my standings as "laura kelly art" and "laura kelly mermaids" are holding up in google images (I'm doing okay in case you were wondering... but maybe you should go check it out for yourself to knock my stats up further). One night I did this with some friends and a lot of some wine, and I managed to go deep, DEEP into the void that is the internet's memory.
These are what I re-discovered:
BAM.
They are some weird and specific sketches that I had to do for DCC from FOREVER ago. Almost 7 years I think... Christ. Wow, forever is right... The first is of my sister when I had to draw planes to make the figure or something (note that I decided to completely ignore that rule for her hair) which looks nothing like her really, and the other is a self-portrait of me that we had to do wearing masks. Also a poor excuse for what I look like. Except for maybe the mouth. That looks pretty good... and I guess the nose is okay. The bottom part at least.
I laughed so hard when I found these. I don't remember having them put online, and I certainly don't have the actual drawings anymore, but they are out there, forever, on the internet. AND NOW (thank heavens) SOME OF MY GOOD STUFF IS TOO.
For your comparison I now include a picture of my sister hanging out with some dogs more recently at Christmas and me wearing my raccoon mask from Halloween:
So now there's this on the internet too.
If you want to see them in action via the webpages I found them on, you can do it here or here. There is kind of a good combo of the the good, the bad, and the ugly going on with the pieces shown in them, and I fall somewhere in the middle.
In fairness to myself, I think that they were done in one of the very first structured art classes that I ever did, and the fact that I made it on the DCC/teacher websites at all is pretty good. I suppose. Kinda.
JUST GIVE ME MY MOMENT.
________________
Oh, and if your wondering why I seem to be wearing the same shirt that I wore in another post, worry no longer: I totally am. I typically write these in my pajamas and that is one of my favorite tops. IT'S VERA WANG AND SUPER COMFY AND I LOVE IT. Now here is a picture of my sister and I being best friends.
Well, I've realized that if I am ever to really have an internet presence, I need to put the word 'art' into all of my posts... that way if anyone types 'laura kelly art' into a search engine, some random thing of mine should pop up. ART ART ART. There. Take that internet.
Now on to the good stuff.
I have been thoroughly enjoying the song 'Holding a Heart' by Girl Named Toby in recent days (because it is amazing), so feel free to give it a listen. And by that I mean listen to it right now... because it is freaking beautiful. I could listen to it forever.
Are you now listening to it as you read this? Good. Back on the art track, I illustrated a couple of scenes from the fairy tale The Goose Girl by the Brothers Grimm, and let me tell you - that is one nutty story with a horrifying ending. Also it was told to children!
The Goose Girl
Colored Pencil, 9"x 11"
Colored Pencil, 17"x 11"
Here is breakdown:
- There once was a beautiful Princess who was going to marry a Prince in a foreign land. As they usually do. Her mother gathered many beautiful and expensive things to send with her, but in order to protect her she also sent her with a maid in waiting (sure) , handkerchief with three drops of blood that she was to keep on her at all times (uh... right), and a magical talking horse (amazing). Yes. All things that I've wanted when journeying, but never managed to get.... but just you wait. One day...
Once they began to travel and had gotten away from the castle, they stopped for a drink in a nearby stream and the Princess promptly dropped her magic blood handkerchief right into the water where it floated away, never to be seen again. The maid took this opportunity to be like, "BITCH, I'm the princess now and you are the maid. Deal with that. AND IF YOU SAY ANYTHING TO ANYONE ABOUT IT KILL EVERYONE/THING THAT YOU LOVE. Also give me that goddamn magic horse." Or something to that effect. They then pull a non-fun parent trap type situation and go to meet the Prince.
- So they get there, everyone is like, "OOOOH, Princess, how nice to meet you. What's that? Give you're maid in waiting a job somewhere far away from you and also kill your magical horse because it displeased you? Sure, NO PROBLEM!!!! :> :) ;} WE TOTALLY TAKE YOU AT YOUR WORD IN ALL THINGS!" and the true princess is put to work in the fields tending the geese with some other dude while the maid lives it up before her wedding.
She went being the goose girl and feeling sorry for herself while the goose... boy who helped her in the fields developed a thing for her... hair. He thought that it was really pretty and wanted a piece of her beautiful golden hair to, I don't know, have and started to try and creep on her in order to get it. To dissuade this from happening, whenever she brushed it she would sing a song that made the wind blow and the goose boy's hat fly away so that he was forced to chase it and she could brush it in peace. Yup.
- The King saw her working her hair magic and wanted to know what was up, buuuuuuuut she told him that she couldn't tell him anything about who she was. In order to get the truth out of her, he told her that inside the castle there was a magical stove that if you sit inside of it and air your grievances, they'll all go away. The former Princess/current goose girl must have a been a bigger idiot than anyone besides the King would have thought, because she believed that wash and went ahead and did just that. The King obviously eavesdropped on that mess and once he realized what had happened, he pulled her out of her field job and plopped her in the castle, telling everyone but the former maid in waiting who she was and dressing her back up in style.
At dinner that night the maid in waiting was surprised to see a pretty young woman who looked vaguely familiar sitting on the other side of the Prince (not noticing that the young woman was the Princess showed that she was apparently as dumb as the Princess herself). The King asked her what she thought that they should do to someone who, ya know, did exactly what she did to the Princess. She then, like a champion, said that if a person did that they should be dragged behind horses in a nail studded barrel, naked, until they were dead. So the King had that done to her while the Prince and Princess got married and lived happily ever after.
THE-stuff-that-nightmares-are-made-of-END
Really and truly.
When I finished with these there were some things going on in the big one full of geese that made me crazy when I looked at it. I mean, there were things in the river one too, but not as many. In order to remedy this: PHOTOSHOP! Oh photoshop, you are so helpful when I am not making a full picture with you and just editing things. Because if I am making a full picture it is not a pretty one. I'm bad at that.
In preparation for making these, I also borrowed the book The Goose Girl from the girl that I babysit for and powered through that in a few hours to see how it was. It was a fun, interesting, more in depth take on an old weird fairytale that actually seemed tween appropriate. I'm sure that the kids reading it will have no idea that it was in fact based off a fairy tale, but whatever. I'll read anything once. No regrets.
