Being Artsy Fartsy

Art has always been a big part of my life, from my baby days of drawing with spaghetti sauce on my high chair, to my college drawing classes and musical endeavors, I've dabbled in a lot of different things.  Some areas I'm better at than others, but with my wide range of creative outlets, I'm more a jack of all trades than a master at any one in particular.

Music

While I've dipped into multiple instruments here, my primary instrument is the Alto Saxophone.  My mother bought me a professional grade saxophone when I was a freshman or sophomore in high school, and I played and practiced it quite frequently.  Sadly, I was never into jazz much, which was a set back for a saxophone player, resulting in me trying other instruments such as the oboe, piano, flute, clarinet, and trombone.  None the less, when I was asked which instrument I wanted to play in Concert Band more, the higher band at my high school, I chose the alto saxophone over the oboe, the two instruments I had auditioned on, and was the instrument I played until I graduated.

In college, I had one semester of being a music major, and in result, one semester of being in band.  I managed to get into the higher end band for the semester after an audition, but due to the odd schedule of practices and moving out of being a music major in my second semester, I no longer had an outlet of playing my saxophone.

After that, when my brother entered college, he ended up using my saxophone for band himself, and I haven't personally played for about 3 years now.  Even then, I still find my fingers playing scales on an imaginary air saxophone from time to time.

Graphic Design

This was covered in a previous post I made, so if you want to hear and see about my talents in this area, I'd recommend checking out the post.

Jewelry

Making jewelry is something I've always really enjoyed doing, picking up cheap, clearanced jewelry when I used to work in an accessories department of a retail store, and dismantling it for parts toward my own pieces.  Between doing that, and purchasing new beads, string, wire, etc from bead stores, I have quite a collection of materials for making custom pieces.

I have to admit, finding the creativity and energy to make jewelry has always been the hardest part of making it in the first place.  When I get started, there's rarely anything that can get in my way.  I just have to get there, being the hard part.

I would have to say my favorite pieces to makeare bracelets, followed by anklets, then dangling earrings.  Necklaces take a lot of time and effort for me, and are really the one piece that I tend to rush and end up with less than favorable results from.

This is the set of prayer beads that someday will make their way into the hands of my best friend!

Nail Design

I love painting my nails.  Usually I wait until they get long and strong, then I paint them with a solid color,  draw on top of them with another color in some nifty design before sealing it with top coat.  The most popular design I've had people notice and 'wow' over is my tiger stripe design, which I usually did with black nail polish base and then white stripes that crossed from the sides of the nails, tapering about 3/4 of the way to the other side of the nail.  Once I have decently long nails again, I'll likely paint them up and make a post showcasing them.

Art

I've always loved drawing, but I am quite terrible at anatomy.  I always get it wrong no matter how much I practice and study, so a lot of my art is 'chibi' or a kind of henna design esque sort of art.

My chibis are kind of derpy, but then again, what's better than a derpy chibi?

My other type of art started when I was bored at the 6 week long training at my old job.  There was a restaurant nearby that gave you styrofoam cups for your drink, and I had gotten one on my lunch break.  Considering there were more than a few breaks, pauses, and general down time during training, I started doodling on the cup.  This is what I ended up with: