Day 57: Something to Smile About

"Find occasions to celebrate your happiness. There is more to celebrate than anniversaries and birthdays."
-Amanda Bradley

This week's theme is celebration. So today I tried to draw a face that looked happy at least. It could fit the theme better, but I'll be sure to draw something closer to "celebration" later this week.

Also, this week I don't know that I'll be able to publish a post every day since I'll be traveling. I'll still draw every day and will try my hardest to post them when possible but it may not happen every day.

Day 56: Surprise

(a self portrait)

"A nice blend of prediction and surprise seem to be at the heart of the best art."

-Wendy Carlos

"Art must take reality by surprise."

-Francoise Sagan

Day 55: Mask

"Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and we know we cannot live within."

-James A. Baldwin

This year for Christmas I drew portraits for my family. Christmas seems a while ago now, but I was not in a place that I could post these from/ didn't think of it until now. These are the celebrity portraits that I drew as gifts:

Bruce Springstein

Mel Gibson (as William Wallace in Braveheart)

Ryan Gosling

Lady Gaga

Day 54: Another Face

"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

-Howard Thurman

I know this drawing is very similar to the one I did yesterday, but I really enjoyed this style or portrait so I wanted to try it again.

Day 53: Pretty Face

"I once knew a pretty girl

And she was in love with the world

And she loved a young man

Who loved her body but never saw her mind.

He took everything she had kept,

And then took everything else that was left"

-First Aid Kit, Our Own Pretty Ways

I've decided to stop following the themes strictly (I'll do them at least one day per week, but I'd rather be able to just draw what I want every once in a while as well). The thing I like to draw the most are faces, and that was the only thing I wanted to draw today. 

Day 52: Hot Chocolate

This picture doesn't even deserve a quote. I've hated everthing I've drawn lately; I don't know why I can't draw anything right. I also can't get the internet on my computer to work so I had to take a picture of it on that computer and email it to another computer, hence the terrible quality...again.

Day 51: Breeze

"Break open a cherry tree and there are no flowers, but the spring breeze brings forth myriad blossoms."
-Ikkyu Sojun

Day 50: Cake

"Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie."

-Jim Davis

This week's theme is yummy.

Day 49: Drinking Tea

"Come, let us have some tea and continue to talk about happy things."

-Chaim Potok

10 health benefits of drinking tea include:

• Tea contains antioxidants.
• Tea has less caffeine than coffee.
• Tea may reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke.
• Tea protects your bones.
• Tea bolsters your immune defenses.
• Tea protects against cancer.
• Tea helps keep you hydrated (unless you drink more than five or six caffeinated beverages at a time).
• Tea is calorie-free.
• Tea increases your metabolism.
• Tea lowers the chances of cognitive impairment.

Day 48: Smiling

You're never fully dressed without a smile.

Why is smiling beneficial?

• It makes people more attractive.
• Smiling changes your mood.
• It's contagious.
• Smiling relieves stress.
• Smiling boosts your immune system (most likely because you're more relaxed).
• Smiling releases endorphins, natural pain killers, and serotonin.
• Smiling makes you seem successful.

Day 47: Sunlight

"Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight."

-Benjamin Franklin

"In the beginning there was nothing. God said, 'Let there be light!" And there was light. There was still nothing, but you could see a whole lot better.

-Ellen Degeneres

Day 46: Teeth

"If suffering brought wisdom, every dentist's office would be full of luminous ideas."
Mason Cooley

I haven't had access to a scanner for a few days now, and so I've been taking pictures of my drawings instead. The problem with that is that even if my phone isn't being held exactly level, it warps the proportions Of the drawing get warped and make it look yucky.

Days 44 and 45: Broccoli and Sleep

"In sleep is the only place I get to see him, get to love him."

-Lissie, "In Sleep"

This is today's drawing. Sometimes I need to remind myself that sleep is a good thing.

Yesterday's, which I couldn't upload in the car, got super smudged overnight, not to mention that I could barely see when I drew it so I hate it anyways. Here it is:

Road Trip

Due to the fact that my family is currently on a drive from New Hampshire to Florida it is not possible for me to post my drawing for today (although it is completed). I'm very frustrated by this but there's nothing I can do. I guess I'll just post it when I get the chance.

Day 43: Stairs

Change happens one step at a time.

It's Saturday, which means it's the first day of a new theme. This week's theme is healthy.
Most of my friends (at least the ones that live on the fourth floor of my building at school with me) know that I highly dislike elevators. Not because of a phobia of them or anything, they just make me feel really lazy. So I pretty much always try to take the stairs.
According to a study done by the European Society of Cardiology in Munich (and common sense), people that use the stairs regularly have better fitness, less body fat, slim waitlines, and lower blood pressure. In the study, subjects' blood pressure, body fat, cholestrol, waist circumference, and lung capacity were measured, and were asked to take the stairs regularly rather than an elevator at work for three months. On average, then went from walking up about 5 floors to 23 floors of stairs per day. At the end of the study, the participants had better lung capacity, smaller waists, and lower body fat, blood pressure, and cholesterol. This equated to a 15% reduction in the chances of dying prematurely on average.
So I guess it's a good thing I like to use the stairs regularly. And on days when I've done nothing but sit in class all day so far, it's actually fun to get your heartrate up with a jog up a few flights of stairs. Not to mention the energy conserved by not using the elevator.

Day 42: Shadows

"A human being is only breath and shadow."

-Sophocles

I had very little time for this drawing today. Once again, I spent a lot more time working on other drawings.  So once again, this will have to do for today.

Day 41: Demon

"I am not a demon. I am a lizard, a shark, a heat-seeking panther. I want to be Bob Denver on acid playing the accordion."

-Nicolas Cage

I've been doing a lot of extra drawing lately to get ready for Christmas, so today I was not really feeling very patient when it came to my sketch for this blog. I just drew something from my brain instead of a drawing of a photo, and wasn't at all happy with how it came out, but I know that I won't be happy with my sketch every day. The important thing is that at least I did something, and that's still practice even if I don't like what I came up with.

Day 40: Footsteps

"Let me walk three weeks in the footsteps of my enemy, carry the same burden, have the same trials as he, before I say one word to criticize."

-Anonymous

Day 39: Child's View

"The ability to retain a child's view of the world with at the same time a mature understanding of what it means to retain it, is extremely rare- and a person who has these qualities is likely to be able to contribute something really important to our thinking."

-Mortimer J. Adler, How to Read a Book

Day 38: Underwater

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore."

-Andre Gide