like a foot of snow!

Guys, look at all the pretty SNOOOOOOW! Not in the picture. Outside. This is my own private snowstorm, in my bedroom. I am dearly in lubb with it. Although... I think I'll be taking it down after this snow melts. Did you get snow, Lady Arin? Daine? Ereka?... Maybe it was just me. I took pictures of all the flowers that are going to freeze and die now. They look a little dumb, half-buried in snow. Ah well.

Wow, this is one of my shortest posts. I'll do more tomorrow... once I get some more pictures on the computer.

Commander Kip (a.k.a. Laughingstar)
SPRINK ON YOUR SPRONK!
Normal is overrated!

Draith Darkling

Late night posting time...

Guess who this is. *points* His name is Draith Darkling. I have no idea what deep, dark recess of my brain he was concieved in, but anyway, I was doodling in the margins of my Ideal Gases chemistry test (nothing new there) and this cute little guy popped out. He's a floater, no story, no background... the only thing I know about him is that his mother was an elf and his father was a darkling, a mythical sentinent type creature I invented to explain Draith's horns, wings and tail. Oughtta draw a pic of a real darkling sometime. They walk upright like men, but they're covered in smooth scales and are built more like dragons. Fun stuff indeed.

I drew Draith in my small costume design notebook, because I didn't have my other one handy at the time, and he was banging around in my head, screaming for a picture. So I made do. He ends at the mid-calves, which is fine, since I can't draw feet. Something's wrong with both his hands, by the way, even though I made DarkChild hold her left hand out for like ten minutes in study hall so I could look at it and stick it to Draith. Let's just say it's better than it was. I also think his loincloth-thing is slightly botched, but that's just Kipin not knowing how to hang/fold fabric. So meh. I am in DESPERATE need of a private lesson. Must learn hands, hair, feet, and clothes. Dearie me, that's most of the human body...

This boy is MINE. M - I - N - E. You takey, I smitey. Savvy? And lastly, I dedicate this post to Ereka and her new BOYFRIEND YAY! *glomps*

Commander Kip/Laughingstar
SRPINK ON YOUR SPRONK!
Normal is overrated!

Kipin avatar

Guten morgen, ladies. Kipin has something to show you. Lookie:

Isn't she CUTE? This is my new Kipin avatar. I decided I needed one, to give me something to draw in the margins of my homework besides Hattie (not that I dont' love Hattie, of course, and I still draw her frequently, but...) So, she's there to express my feelings on a given subject. I really like the one of her holding the steering wheel and saying, "Careful, everybody, Kipin's driving!" That's totally gonna be me when I get my permit.

I have a bunch more of these, so expect to see a few every now and then.

Commander Kip/Laughingstar

SPRINK ON YOUR SPRONK!

Normal is overrated!

Kartik for Lady Arin

Happy slightly late birthday, Lady Arin!

This is Kartik, from Libba Bray's book, A Great and Terrible Beauty. Lady Arin is somewhat obsessed with him, so here he is in all his hawtness - at least, as much of it as Kipin could convey, anyway.

The graphite pencil lineart: Black colored pencil lineart:

Prismacolored (added doorknob):

In the frame. Fitting, no?

This was such a fun project. I think I've finally stumbled across a method of drawing torsos that doesn't make the guy look like an overdeveloped monstrosity. *hugs poor botched Thaelen* Yes, I'll have to go back and redo that at some point. Poor guy.

I suppose I could have used a darker color for the backround. It looks a bit too... stripey, somehow. And the doorknob still bugs me, rawr... should have sketched it in earlier. It looks like it's floating. *gnashes teeth* And his hair! I swear, I erased it and redrew it like ten times. I need to learn hair. I know I keep saying that, but seriously. Mom's actually considering getting me a private lesson. It's that bad.

One last thing. The reason I say the frame is fitting is because Kartik spends most of the three books in the trilogy skulking about in the woods behind the all-girl's academy, watching Gemma. Pfft. What a stalker. But he's a HAWT stalker, so no one's complaining, right? Anyway, that's why the leafy frame jumped out at me in the store.

Commander Kipin M. Rakshana

SPRINK ON YOUR SPRONK!

Normal is overrated!

Whisperwood wolves

...And that was so much fun, let's have another.

These guys are some newly invented additions to Portals... the Whisperwood wolf pack, or as much of it as Kipin could fit on the page, anyway. Top left: Byrony, top right: Esker, bottom left: Fiachra, bottom right: Lucien. Technically, Lucien would be the Alpha dominant male person, but in this case, his mate Fiachra leads the pack, because Kipin says so. In Zraeland, female wolves have a higher status than the males. Lol, so there.

Kipin barely planned out this drawing, which is why none of them are shown to scale, and O'Darrell is missing, because he wouldn't fit. Had all sorts of trouble with Byrony's pose, but I think I got it worked out in the end. Esker gave me fits as well - her forepaws were refusing to reach the ground. Eventually, I figured out that she was tipped too far back, and tried to erase her head, which stubbornly refused to disappear. *smites cruddy sketchbook paper* I miss my old sketchbook... Anyway, that's why it looks like there's a half-invisible ghost wolf sitting behing Esker, which was unplanned and unwanted, so please ignore it. Also, since I'm doing my little artist-criticizing-her-own-artwork thing here, I shall say that Lucien looks like a bulldog. Mi madre is in full agreement with me on this point.

Believe it or not, we actually do not have any books on wolves. *snarls* So I had flip through a bunch of different nature/animal kindom reference guides to find suitable pictures. There were hardly any, hence the problems I had with Esker... that was a case where I just needed a reference, and couldn't find one to save my life. Gaah! I ended up looking at some of the posters in my room that have wolves in them for inspiration, because prior to this project, I had no idea how to draw wolves. Now I have at least a general idea of how they're put together. Another big inspirational help was Hanyousblood's DevART gallery, which you should all go look at, and drool over her amazingness. I think I gave a link for it in my list of recommended links... *dashes off to check*

Graphite mechanical pencil and kneaded eraser, because I knew I had one somewhere, and I was right.

The parts I like: Byrony's tail, Fiachra's expression, Lucien's paws, and Esker's pose. Thank you, thank you, no applause, just throw money!

Can you just imagine what will happen when Ellian and her new friends run into these guys in the woods? For Ellian... major freak out time, I presume. But Kaelo can talk to animals, the lucky rotter, and the wolves can talk as well, so no worries.

Happy early birthday present, Lady Arin, because I know you like wolves.

Commander Kip who needs to finish packing
Normal is overrated!

the Raven collection

Hey everybody, you won't believe this...

KIPIN FINALLY FINISHED CHAPTER 4 OF PORTALS!!! *dies in relief* That took forevah!

Anyhoo, just thought I'd get that out there.

This is Raven, from Teen Titans.

I am most especially fond of the big colored headshot in the bottom left corner. That was a screenshot from one of the early episodes... the one with the Puppet King... doormat, what was it called? Don't remember, but that's beside the point. I was watching the episode on YouTube and saw that awesome shot, so I paused it and sketched it down. Later, I colored it. The pencil sketch in the top left corner came about the same way. That screenshot was from the episode Spellbound, where she falls in love with an evil dragon who's pretending to be a wizard, lol, lol, that was a cool one. She's about to throw something at Cyborg, a stankball maybe, and I loved the expression on her face. I don't think I captured it quite right... you'd have to see it, gaah, that cracked me up. The one in the top right corner was done first, and I drew it looking at the Volume 1 dvd cover. She actually looks better far away than she does up close there, because of how many times I had to erase her eyes. The paper got all scarred. It looks fine from here though.

In case you can't read the text (it's fairly tiny there), it says, 'I speak English, German, Latin, Romanian, Ancient Sumerian and Sanskrit. Do you have anything I can read?' *dies laughing* Gaah. Best Raven quote evah. From the extended feature thing, Trouble in Tokyo, the ending of which irked me to pieces. *grumblesnarlhiss* I am a RobRae shipper. The ending was decidedly RobStar. 'Nuff said.

Or maybe not. Kipin likes to rant. So - SHE'S TOO HAPPY FOR HIM! IT WOULD NEVER WORK! BESIDES, SHE'S AN ALIEN! Not that we don't all love Starfire, and she does kick serious butt. Howevah! She's simply too bubbly and carefree for Robin. He's from Gotham, raised by Batman. He's seen plenty of things that no teenager should have to see, whereas Starfire is about as naive as it gets. She thinks mustard is a beverage to be drunken through a straw. Besides, Robin and Raven had some valid, convincing moments in the End of the World story arc, and they ah so flippin' cute togethah.

Graphite mechanical pencil, then Prismacolor pencils. Nothing new here. And the disclaimer: Teen Titans is a registered trademark of somebody-or-other, who isn't me. So yeah. Don't own nuthin'. Unfortunately. If I did, the show would still be running and thousands of heartbroken fans would be... un-heartbroken.

Commander Kip who is awfully happy with how Lady Arin's birthday present came out! *squees to self*
Normal is overrated!

"For the hundredth time..."

Hay there, dudes... Kipin's already posted today (like five minutes ago, in fact) but she couldn't wait to show you guys this drawing. So you get a double dose of CreativityIncarnate today.
I know, I know, the poses are epic fail. (The girl is Terra and the dude is Beast Boy, from Teen Titans. This is a scene from my fanfic, Prisoner of Love.) Kipin messed up the composition badly. Terra looks like she's about to tip over backward, because of the strange angle of her right leg, and the whole pose looks off. Not sure why. Perhaps Kipin tried to add too much detail? No big surprise there...

The best part of this pic is that Kipin finally brought herself to draw a BACKGROUND! *freaks out* Amazing, isn't it? Obviously, a five-year-old could have done just as well, but I'm happy all the same. Usually, Kipin's too lazy to do backgrounds.

The exerpt that goes with this piece is... still in my notebook. I'm only up to Chapter Five when it comes to the typing for this particular fanfic, and the part I chose to draw happens in Chapter Six or Seven, can't remember which just now. Basically, Terra was by herself in the Tower with Raven, and Slade ambushed them and kidnapped Raven. Terra was knocked senseless in the ambush and woke up like an hour later to find Raven gone. So she was totally freaking out, and saying that it was all her fault that Raven was missing, and here Beast Boy is trying to convince her otherwise. "For the hundredth time, Terra... it's not your fault!" She doesn't believe him of course. But anyway, I was gonna wait to post this drawing until I got the matching exerpt on the computer, but I got impatient, which seems to happen often.

Commander Kip the just had a great idea!
Normal is overrated!

Sisters

Hi people! Kipin's on a huge drawing kick right now. See here:
The first picture ever of Saabra ferch Diarbed, also (and more often than Kyren) known as Princess Llaelora. Funny thing - when I was drawing this at Taekwondo, I had no idea what clothes to put her in, because of that dress-hating crouch she's doing, lol. So she's not wearing the Llaelora gown, even though that was what I was planning to put her in. I didn't know what she should wear, so I drew a little chibi version of her in the corner of the page and put clothes on it. It turned out so cute, I couldn't bring myself to erase it. So it's still there. I know it looks weird to have two of the same person in the same picture, but I just couldn't erase her! And her hair was royally botched (Kipin REALLY needs to learn hair) but I am fairly happy with the foreshortening of her arm, and her right wrist and hand. One of the few times I've drawn a hand and liked it.

This one's Kyren, obviously. With a rather large FI-YAAHball. *giggles uncontrollably* That is way too much fun to say. FI-YAAH!!! Sorry. Anyway, this picture looked cooler in my head than it did on paper, but I have only my lack of skill to blame for that. I tried a different style of eye for this one, but they came out looking funky, like she was blind or something. Not using that eye design again. I doubt I'll get up the nerve to color either of these, though I've considered it multiple times... but no, I'm too lazy. Also, Kyren's fireball-holding hand is messed up. It looks too... blobby. XD

Commander Kip the frantically trying to decide what to get Lady Arin for her birthday *goes into panic mode*

Normal is overrated!

OMG I JUST HAD A GREAT IDEA!!! *dashes away, squeeing loudly*

WEAPONS!

Hee, look.

WEAPONS!

Sorry, just had to yell that. Everybody remember the third PotC movie? When Sao Feng is all like, "WEAPONS!" and the pirates all pull swords out of the bathtubs? That was so funneh.

Anyhow, here's the happy post I promised, barely five minutes after the other one. These sharp pointy objects are a collection of weapons from Portals. Weapons make Kipin happy, okay? The big one (which has been compared with Cloud's sword from Final Fantasy on several occasions) belongs to Science, not that Science can lift it, lol. He's far too skinny. I had waaay too much fun doing all the technologically baffling designs on the blade, but they took forever to clean up. Next is my personal favorite, Saabra's bladed boomerang. It's the double-sided curvy one in the middle of the page. I invented it myself. *preens proudly* And I think it's my favorite weapon in the entire book. So far. In the left bottom corner is the Floramancer's leaf-blade, which is Thea's. I royally botched the edges, in case you can't tell, but i like how the handle came out. Then there's one of Kaelo's many throwing daggers. This particular one has a long handle, which comes in handy for non-lethal attacks. You know, in Chapter Two, when he throws a dagger and knocks Rykker out without killing him... that would have been this dagger. In the right corner is some sort of flail thing. I was gonna give it to Thaelen, but Mom said a flail was too messy for him. She said he needed a cleaner weapon. So the flail is just there to look cool until I decide who gets it (Queen Diarbed, perhaps? She's ruthless enough for it, lol.) And last but not least, guess what Thaelen ended up with? Twin long knives! Yay, they fit him perfectly! I wanna do a pic soon of him holding them and looking all scary and cool. This time, I'll put him in his cloak so I don't have to do his muscles, or his hair. Gaah, I MUST learn hair. Soon. Or I will die of artistic Thaelen-induced hair deprivation. I'm getting tired now. Must be, because that last bit made no sense... So anyway, the swirls on the handles were my friend DarkChild's idea. She said they needed some kind of cool design on them because they were too boring. I completely agreed with her, and lo and behold - vast improvement. Thank you once again, DarkChild, for inspiring me.

Must go sleep before any other sillinesses spew out of my melted brain...

Commander Kip the Smite-er of the Blasted Format

HelphelpitsFrodohe'skillingmehe'sponingme! *snort of laughter*

Normal is overrated!

my dog attempting to eat my homework...

... literally. GAAAAAAAAAAH!!! STUPID LITTLE FLUFFHEAD!!! *strangles, but stops when she realizes how cute he is* Rawr... aw, he's making the sad puppy face at me and wagging his tail just the tiniest bit... that's his 'I'm sorry' routine... d'awwww...

Lookit this mangled mess.

Gaah, look at all those horrid gouges! *hides face in horrah* Just look at it! I swear, I didn't see him do it, but it looks like the face and my dog got in a fight and the dog won. I came upstairs and there were bits of my school art project strewn all over the landing, and the plastic wrapping it was in was all shredded up. AND THERE WERE A BUNCH OF NASTY GOUGES IN MY MASK! *fumes for a minute* *takes deep breath* Hhh - whoo. Hhh - whoo. That makes me SO mad. Anyway, I had to spend an entire evening repairing it, and it was due the next day. I was supposed to have it DONE, and it wasn't any further along than it was when I took it home, because, as I explained to my wonderful understanding art teacher, my dog LITERALLY ate my homework. Or tried to dig in it, anyway. *growls at Marco* Bad dog. Bad! Bad! *swats*

Now that I've got this particular ordeal out of my system, I shall go and post something more cheerful. You'll see some more pics of this project after I get it all done and the leaves all stuck on.

Commander Kip the off to post something more cheerful now

Helphelpit'sFrodohe'skillingmehe'sponingme!!! (funny story... explanation available on request)

Normal is overrated!

EREKA!!!!!!!!! (new reader has a name now) *tackles* LOVE YOU!!!

Sketchdump

Good Day, everybody, and guess what?

Kipin remembered how much fun blogging is!!! *capers about madly* So prepare yourselves for a mess of sketches.
This one's a couch I saw in Starbucks. I was really, really bored...

And this is our weighted keyboard that makes all the pretty harp-like noises, without the stand it sits on, because I was too lazy to draw that part.
My hand (at a time when I had fingernails.)

My fist, drawn on the same day as the hand.

Some different claws, lol. In the top corner of the Epic Brain Fart, I drew a very nice owl claw, which inspired me to draw more. So there's a couple owl claws in there, and some Drog claws, and Wyrm's hand (Wyvern's is the one on the other side of the body) and my own hand, with extra-long nails, bwahahaa.

Groundcover from our back yard. (Is back yard supposed to be one word?)

A tulip, also from the backyard. (Yes, I think it is one word.)

There you go for now, but since I'm on such a roll, I might post again later today. If I have time. Sorry this post is so booooring, but these sketches are never gonna get posted unless I just dump them on you guys all at once, lol.

Commander Kip the Obsessor

No, noo, you're ruining it! Eat it RRRAW! *bites*

Normal is overrated!

Epic Brain Fart

Dash it all, why can't the pictures show up in the correct order?! *bites computer*

Hi, everybody. *sheepish grin* Excuse me whilst I smite this uncooperative machine. Anyway, I profusely apologize! Kipin has not so much as touched her blog since the end of February, which is, of course, unacceptable. There were piles of homework to contend with, and a stupid mutant cold/flu thing, and all sorts of rot... but Kipin's back now, with a vengeance, bwahahaaa.
So, this is the second-to-LAST page in my sketchbook *dies* which means Kipin has to start a new one! Augh, the horrah! But the method behind the madness here is that I wanted to draw something meaningful and cool and complicated on the last page, so in order to purge my mind of silliness first, I filled the second-to-last page with any- and everything that came to mind over a two-day period. Hence, the Epic Brain Fart, which started out in black and white (see below, blast this format!) and just screamed to be colored, which Kipin did, without any ado.

Yes, this was actually a lot of fun. I had just recently watched the LotR trilogy, so there are several related objects in there (Eye of Sauron, elven brooch, Evenstar pendant, the One Ring, etc.) Other scribbles of note: the Sordid Sea'orse, in the top right corner (Captain Calamity's ship), Lackadaisy, the grinning kitty in overalls there (who I did not come up with, by the way... saw another drawing like him on DevART and loved him to pieces), several drawings of Hattie, in assorted colors, a rather large hand, Saabra's mind-blowingly awesome weapon (middle of the left edge, right next to the Evenstar pendant), a rather nice set of claws on the right edge, and a large-scale representation of my new signature near the bottom. Whew. *pants, tongue hanging out of mouth* So yeah. Feast your eyes on the epic randomosity of it all!

Commander Kip the Back from the Dead

Normal is overrated!