The Dragon’s Horde

Pictures of awesome stuff.

Dragon’s Horde 0022: Roll Model Student

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roll_model_student

Photoshop – 20ish minutes

I was exchanging emails with my instructor when this happened

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Me: Thank you for all the wonderful assignments. I know I am not being the roll model student at the moment, but this is a very fun and engaging class. I have loved all of the assignments so far, and am looking forward to the rest of this week and the week after.

Instructor: I am glad you are getting a lot out of it. Role as you say is not two “L”s—I can’t help it, I am a teacher.

Pardon me while I go crawl under a rock and die a agonizing death from humiliation… >.<;

Though I suppose it wasn’t that bad. I got to make a cute comic out of it.

Dragon’s Horde 0021: IF Challenge – Strong

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Conley_Jennifer_IF3_Sketch

Illustrator Friday Challenge – Strong
Concept Sketch
15 minutes – Mechanical Pencil

Artist Statement

The word strong invokes the word strength.

Strength, for me, is very internal. I think of it more as a trait rather than an outward display of brawn.

Strength is what we have when we endure the hardships of life. Strength is what makes us unbreakable. Strength is what allows us to holdfast to the things that are important to us.

Our strength allows us to feel pride in the things we accomplish. Strength gives us the will power to chase our dreams and goals. Strength is what allows us to act upon our determination.

Strength is subtle. It is something working behind the scenes, enabling all other things to happen. Strength is quiet, calm; present but never seen.

Strength is not force, or effort. Strength stands like a pillar and allows things to flow around it, weathering the trials and tribulations. Strength is a beacon to turn to when all other attributes have failed.

We may not have made it through unscathed, but at least we were strong. We had our strength to carry us to the end.

I wanted to capture the subtleness, the grace, the internal acceptance, in which I view strength. I wanted to show how gentle and soft spoken strength can be. To do this I used the King Pigeon pose from yoga.

A common misconception is that yoga is only about relaxing and mediation. To an extent those elements are involved, however, most yoga poses take a fair amount of muscle tone. Poses can be held for minutes at a time, working endurance as well as flexibility. Yoga subtly makes a person stronger, and the stronger you become the more advanced variations of poses you can strive to preform.

While the King Pigeon pose appears graceful, calm, and “easy”, it is actually an extremely advanced and difficult pose to hold. It requires an intense amount of core strength to keep the body balanced and in an upright position, which is not immediately noticed when observing the pose. It is not until a person tries to preform the pose that the true extent of what is required is fully comprehended.

I felt this pose, specifically, embodied my vision of strength. There is calmness, balance, and peace; an inner harmony and self-acceptance. But there is also focus, potential, and determination.

There is a will to not back down, to not give in, to holdfast until you can hold no longer.

For me, this is strength.

Dragon’s Horde 0020: IF Challenge – Path

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IF_Challenge_Path_005

My class this month is Digital Story Telling. One of the weekly assignments is to do the IF Challenge.

Illustrator Friday

Each week the website posts a word, and it is up to us to create an image for that word by Friday.

Well, this week’s word was “Path”. And this is the image I created for it.

My first, full blown, digital painting in Photoshop. I know there’s tons of room for improvement. But I’m proud of how it came out, especially with how little time I actually put into it. Roughly 5 hours.