Defender

Another piece with colors that are slightly off from the original, but the picture is still decent enough to post here. :)

The Seelie and Unseelie faeries are at war, but the war is starting to affect the kingdom of vampires, werewolves, etc. The vampiress Jaria, their leader, tries to defend her people from the warring faeries.

Another story I hope to write out someday.

Alcohol markers and colored pencils on mixed media paper. Approx. 9 × 12 inches. © Mary DeMauro 2016

Waves of Death

Hey! Remember this? The picture that, for the life of me, I couldn't get a decent photo of? Well, this is as good as it's gonna get for now... and the colors still don't match the original. But it's good enough to share! :)

A ship’s cat named Shadar, who has psychic abilities, teams up with another cat named Claw to do battle with a ghost ship. The ghosts of the ship are after a haunted treasure stowed aboard Shadar’s ship.

Been working on this story for awhile; I’ll probably write it out someday.

Approx. 9 × 12 inches. © Mary DeMauro 2016

Technical Difficulties

Okay, so see this piece?

A photo posted by Mary DeMauro (@marydemauro) on Jul 11, 2016 at 7:08pm PDT

I finished it AGES ago, but I've been having no luck taking a good picture of it! That picture that you see, some of the details in the cats just aren't showing. And unfortunately for me, this piece is 100% colored pencils, which I enjoyed doing but now there's always a glare when I try to take a picture. But when there's not enough light, it's too dark... ugh! This is giving me so much trouble. Well, enjoy the preview for now, I suppose...

And no, I don't want to scan it. I used to scan my art in pieces and put them together in photoshop, but then I not only had to put it together, I had to adjust the colors, etc. I still have to make some adjustments when taking a picture, but not nearly as much. So, yes, I really would prefer to take a picture as opposed to scanning.

Just some sketches

Felt like making a post showing some drawings I've done recently. :)

A photo posted by Mary DeMauro (@marydemauro) on Jul 6, 2016 at 6:05pm PDT

Random cat...

A photo posted by Mary DeMauro (@marydemauro) on Jul 6, 2016 at 5:56pm PDT

Fanged vampire lady...

A photo posted by Mary DeMauro (@marydemauro) on Jun 30, 2016 at 10:25pm PDT

Drew this during a recent vacation when I was sitting by the ocean.

A photo posted by Mary DeMauro (@marydemauro) on Jun 19, 2016 at 12:45pm PDT

My idea of an elf woman.

A photo posted by Mary DeMauro (@marydemauro) on Jun 16, 2016 at 6:36pm PDT

A Maasai woman.

Finished reading Lord of the Rings!

I've always loved reading, but I've been on a particular "book" kick lately, so I finally did something I've been meaning to do for years: I read The Lord of the Rings!

Finally finished reading this! :) #bookstagram #lordoftherings #tolkien

A photo posted by Mary DeMauro (@marydemauro) on Jul 4, 2016 at 2:50am PDT

It's a little more intimidating when you realize it's all supposed to be one novel as opposed to three, which I guess is why I put it off for so long, but I finally did it! Feel so damn happy about it.

...Immediately after reading it I decided to decompress with a short, super-fluffy women's lit story. XD

So this is what I'm reading now. Not my usual thing--I don't even celebrate Christmas--but I needed something super light after Lord of the Rings and for some reason this caught my interest. #bookstagram

A photo posted by Mary DeMauro (@marydemauro) on Jul 5, 2016 at 3:59pm PDT

And now I'm reading one of Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry books. The character of Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck made me crave her again... if only because I like the sound of her name. XD

Currently reading... #bookstagram #laurellkhamilton

A photo posted by Mary DeMauro (@marydemauro) on Jul 6, 2016 at 5:59pm PDT

Just for kicks here's my entire library haul. I prefer checking out books to buying them because libraries are just so fun. <3

A photo posted by Mary DeMauro (@marydemauro) on Jul 5, 2016 at 3:54pm PDT

Digital Art Journaling

So awhile back I heard about art journaling through Sarah Pehrson on YouTube. If you don't know what art journaling is, just search for it on YouTube and you'll find a much better definition than I could provide here, sorry. XD For those who DO know what it is, once I heard of it I thought it would be a great way to collect images and text that interest me. I once did it the "traditional" way, but I got tired of the backings from those double-sided adhesive things (I don't know what I should call them... I used these things) covering the floor of my room. So, I decided to start doing it digitally! The ultimate goal is to print these out, but color printer ink is expensive as hell so I don't know how much that will happen, if it happens at all. XP But I really love doing it, and it's given me a place to put cool artwork, funny pictures, interesting blog posts, etc. I confess I don't do any actual "journaling," so the term "art journal" is kind of a misnomer. I just like collaging.

I have a template that's roughly the actual size of an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper. I forget what the DPI is, but I'll probably share my template somewhere in case anyone else wants to do this. Once I finish a page, I put it on a PDF. It gets shrunk down a little, but that way I can arrange the PDFs in a "book" to put on my tablet if I want. That, and the formatting for a PDF is the same as formatting to print, and that is the supposed goal.

Anyway, if you're interested, I converted some of the PDF files to images again and shrunk them down so I can show you some examples. (I don't think any of the pictures I used are mine, and I'm not trying to steal anything; I'm just sharing what I did with them in the hopes of inspiring someone else. I call fair use.)

Here's some art I found that I liked.

Some of my favorite pieces by one of my favorite artists, Joseph Vargo.

Paintings of cats.

My two favorite pieces by George Stubbs, another favorite artist of mine.

The Nightmare duo by Johann Heinrich Fuseli, two of my favorite paintings.

Victoria Frances is another favorite artist of mine. 

 I also really like book covers, so...

The Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton

The Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs

The Alpha and Omega series by Patricia Briggs

The Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer. I know, the books are terrible, but I confess I love the covers.

A couple of miscellaneous ones:

Screen caps of Jack Dawson's drawings from the movie Titanic. 

I just like looking at pictures of books. I've only read one in this particular series but I think the covers and spines are lovely.

Again, just like looking at books. These are all by Laurell K. Hamilton

 At one point I thought I was going to use art journal pages for reference material, but then I realized that I wanted to look at printed pictures and that printing in black and white was far preferable to printing colored pictures. Again, expensive as hell. But some photos I just like on an aesthetic level.

Somali cats

Snowshoe cats

Wildcats

I like copying pictures of celebrities. Here's Amy Lee

I forget what this actress is, but she was in the Netflix series Borgia.

Love that dress. <3

Silver and gold horses!

 Last but not least, some of my favorite animated characters.

My beloved Elsa. <3

Belle, one of my favorite disney heroines

More pictures of Belle. Can you tell I love that moon brush?

Nala, another favorite disney heroine.

The gym leader Sabrina from the Pokemon anime. Always thought she was neat.

That's all I'll show for no. Like I said I mainly just do collages but there's a lot of different kinds of art journaling; it's really neat if you want to check it out! There are some great videos on YouTube.

My Folder

I realized that most of my blog posts have thus far just been me sharing my finished pieces; time for some variety! First, I'll write about my trusty folder/padfolio/loose-leaf notebook/whatever you want to call it. :) 

I don't keep sketchbooks or journals. I write and draw on loose leaf paper. I carry my supplies  around with me in a folder. I've had a couple of different ones; they are the "padfolios" you can buy in office supply stores.

Here's my current one; I strapped on a pencil case and everything.

A photo posted by Mary DeMauro (@marydemauro) on Jul 7, 2016 at 6:28pm PDT

When I take stuff out, I put it in manilla folders on a shelf.

I work this way because it's just very freeing. I feel trapped when what I'm working on is bound in a book. If you look at my instagram you'll see that I've used sketchbooks and whatnot in the past. I tried, but it just didn't work for me... though I did tear out pages where I only drew on one side and put them in my folders. I should probably take out the pages where I drew on both sides, too, but I'll put them in a different folder. I only draw/write on one side of the paper and I like sorting what I do according to the content. Also, sometimes I like writing on the computer or my tablet, then printing it out.

...That was a disorganized paragraph, sorry. XD

I think I was first inspired to do this by my best friend, who always carried around a Folder (capital F) in middle school and high school that she used to hold what she wrote. Now I do it.

It also helps since I both enjoy drawing AND writing; it would be inconvenient to carry both a notebook and a sketchbook around with you.

I'll show my folders (meaning the manila folders I store things in) later; you can see how oh so organized I am. XD Maybe I'll make a video! :3 That could be fun.