Isabella

Hello my fellow Angelfish lovers

I like to draw and paint, and I do so whenever I have some free time. Today after work I felt like drawing something with my pastels. I thought of an Altum Angelfish, which I love for its beauty. So, I though I'd draw an Altum Angel. The picture is small enough to fit my scanner. So I scanned it and am posting it for all of you who love Angelfish. I know it's not a perfect drawing (I didn't spend too much time on it - only about 15-20 minutes so it's not very detailed), but nevertheless, I thought I'd share it with you.

Tom

Holy crap that is good. Do you think you could do a pic of Angel or Stanley for me? Do you have any pics of them?
Tom

capekate

WOW Isabella... that is gorgeous! What a great job you did with that pastel drawing. You are very talented! Thanks for sharing...

Sabi

Isabella, thats spectacular! You really draw wonderful! Thanks for posting it here!

Allie

That's awesome!! I wish I could draw like that.

Isabella

Angel or Stanley? Are these your Angelfish names? If you give me some good picture of one of them, sure I could try to copy it with my pastels for you

I'll tell you all a little "secret": I've started my college education in an art college. I've attended it for 2 years, so I guess it has contributed to my art skills somewhat, although I could paint and draw long before art school. What an art school can teach you are the technical aspects of painting or drawing (ex. various drawing and painting techniques/styles); but it can't teach you "talent", lol. You either have it or not. I am not saying I have some "great" talent, because I've seen people with truly wonderful talents in the art school. But I guess I can say I can paint and draw a little Anyway, I've changed my major after these 2 years to healthcare. Overall, it took me 6 years to get a bachelor's degree (because of the transfer): 2 years of art and 4 years of healthcare. However, I don't regret these 2 years. Whatever you've learned, it stays with you for life

Isabella

And here is my cat's eye, lol It's just the eye for now - I want to finish the picture to include his entire face. I'll post it when it's complete. It's also done with pastels.

Also a pic. of a Harlequin Rasbora. But just in plain pencil, so no colors there.

capekate

Hi Isabella...
Just wanted to say that you sure are talented and I totally understand about what an art class can give you in the way of technique. I have a talent for art as well, and have been using acrylics for a long time and do ok by it. My problem is learning the techniques that can bring a talent to a greater level. I wish that i had the money to go to classes. Tho our community college and after school adult ed courses are available for small money and Im hoping that this winter I can get to take one of those classes.
I love your pastel of the cats eye. Eyes can be pretty hard to do and you are right on the money with that one!! I think its fantastic to be able to draw like that...
thank you for sharing your talent with us!
~ kate

Isabella

Kate, I don't think you have to take expensive courses to receive some quality art classes. State universities and private colleges usually cost a lot, but small community colleges (and city colleges too) can give you probably the same quality classes but at a much lower cost. Just look around and you should be able to find something less expensive. I'm glad to hear someone else likes art on Fish Lore I'd be happy to see some/any of your works, if you could post them. I LOVE to look at other people's art. I myself never hang my paintings around my house but always buy others' paintings and hang them, lol. As for the eyes, I agree that they're so hard to draw/paint. I actually don't think the cat's eye is good, but it's not that bad either. I've always tried and tried to learn how to draw/paint eyes. I always looked into my art books with pictures of paintings of the famous painters like Da Vinci. Their paintings are more like actually pictures! I adore all past painters. I'm not that much into modern and abstract arts. Also, I've learned that hands and feet are extremely difficult to draw and paint. Eyes, feet, and hands are a real challenge. I admire anyone who can draw/paint them well.

capekate

Hi Isabella...
I will try and post some of my work, but not sure what the quality would be with the camera, but I will try. My acrylics are simple and detailed one dimensional for the most part. My interest is in Native American art, as it is in my bloodline. I also paint on denim jackets, work with leather and feathers and beads to create, dreamcatchers and medicine bags. I also work with turtle shells and create leather fringed bags decorated in silver beads, feathers and suede fringes.
Funny that you mention that hands and feet are hard to do, as I found that some of my early work was doing pencil drawings of hands and feet. Especially my children's hands and feet including a well worn pair of kids sneakers that I enjoyed drawing years ago when one was a little boy.

Isabella

If you have a scanner, it would be probably much better to scan the paintings if they're small enough. You could even scan a part of a painting if it's too large. But if you don't have a scanner, camera pictures of your art are better than nothing at all! Can't wait to see your work

Native American art sounds so interesting! I always like to watch movies with Native American themes, heh (I even liked the Pocahontas picture for kids!). Also, we have a Native American museum here in Manhattan, New York. I like going there. If you're ever in NYC, you should definitely visit this museum. They have a variety of Native American objects including some quilts with quite amazing patterns. And for art in general, I strongly recommend The Metropolitan Museum of Art - they've everything, from Ancient Egyptian art through modern art. But if you want real modern art, it's probably best to visit "MoMA" (Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art).

Anyway, I've never painted with acrylics, but have seen some great paintings done with them. Can't wait to see yours They're quick to dry, which is a big plus. I personally usually work with oils, and have done a few paintings with regular paints: those for kids in elementary school and junior high, lol The range of media you work with is so wide, must be so cool. Other than drawing and painting, I had to take a sculpture class in the art school. But to tell you the truth, I didn't like it that much. I didn't like getting messed up with all the clay and what-not, haha. I liked my painting and drawing classes best. So my scope of media are restricted basically to oils, pencils, charcoal, and a variety of pastels. I'd like to buy a set of acrylics too.

armadillo

hi hi hi, Isabella, you're like me sometimes: a challenged sense of short posts! I love that your posts are always really thorough.

Isabella

LOL ... I don't know why but I always end up writing too much ...

armadillo

Me too, me too. For my worst ones, I have to split them into sections and name the sections in bold titles... Wish I was kidding.

I love to write reports at work too, am the only ones. My colleagues can't believe it.

Isabella

That's actually very good A lot of writing and reading develops our vocabulary and improves our speech. I'm all for it! LOL, you should see my college essays and research papers. One (history) professor had actually given me once one grade down on one of my research papers because he concluded it was "too long"! Even though the essay itself was very good information- and style-wise. I'll never forget that mean professor! But after all ... he never gave anyone an A, because "he was the smartest person alive" of course, and no one could ever write as well as he could ... lol. He went to Columbia University, of which he literally boasted every single lecture, and that's why no one could ever be as "shmart" as himself. I really don't like people with such HUGE egos!

armadillo

Berk!... He sounds like hard work.

capekate

Sounds like I would love to visit the MM of Art someday.. I love checking out ancient art... as well as artifacts. Washington DC has a wonderful NA museum there, that one day I would also like to visit.
As far as a scanner goes.. I had a wonderful scanner/printer/fax that was just bought not a year ago, unfortunately, when we had a power outage caused by a thunderstorm, it took out my HP printer along with the internal ethernet of my IMAC. So for now... no scanner and cant use my mac anymore til thats sent out to be fixed, have to resort to using a windows laptop for now. So all I can do is take a photo of the art, but have a great little Nikon camera that I can try out on the art soon.
My mother worked with oils and is really quite good I will have to send along a photo of one of my favorites she did.. and I agree.. the wait time for the oils to dry is enough to make me glad that I work with acrylics.. lol...
Good luck with your art and BTW.. love that you are using the cats eye in under your screen name!

Isabella

No problemo, Nikon will do These are some GREAT cameras. I need to get one of those Nikon or Cannon cameras!