It’s the Cradle of Filth version of the Order of the Fallen Dragon. The order of the fallen dragon was an order of people who did horrible things on behalf of the church. Famous member? You may remember Vlad Tepes, also known as Vlad the Impaler, Vlad Dracul, or Dracula.

Source

First up!  The Naked Mole Rat!

I’m starting off by drawing some cartoons, then I’m going to digitalize them, make a pattern and send it to www.spoonflower.com/ to get a swatch made.  So excited!!

Click to view at Amazon.com

This book practically fell into my  lap yesterday.  (Thanks Jen!)  Apparently Ellen recommended it on Oprah and its been growing in popularity since.

It’s not really a self-help book, or a religious book… although it is sort of.  But the beliefs are based on common sense.  How often does that happen in the world of religion and spirituality?  It’s short and very very easy to follow, simply structured, doesn’t try to confuse you or lead you on so you feel like you  have to buy more of the books.

The author is a spiritual teacher of the Toltec tradition.  The Toltecs were an ancient group of scientists and artists that inhabited Mesoamerica (Mexico-ish area) before the Aztecs.

The biggest thing the book touched on for me, is how society grooms us to become so judgmental.  We’re so set in our made-up beliefs of what is right and wrong and proper.  Society itself has become a fabricated nightmare for so many people.  We are so scared of being judged by everyone,  including ourselves.  We struggle to “fit in” or at least coexist without retribution for being different or not conforming to mainstream beliefs and lifestyles.  In a land of stereotypes, discrimination, and unrealistic expectations, it’s refreshing to read such a hugely different perspective.

The “Four Agreements” are:

• Be Impeccable With Your Words
• Don’t Take Anything Personally
• Don’t Make Assumptions
• Always Do Your Best

Be Impeccable With Your Words encourages people to speak only truth, to only use their words for good, to spread love, ideas, express yourself, to not use it for spreading hate, lies, or to judge people.

Don’t Take Anything Personally teaches us that other people’s words and opinions mean squat.  ”What other’s say and do is a projection of their own reality.”  Basically, everyone is driven by their own thoughts and reasons, whether “good” or “bad”.  Even if you can’t understand everyones motives, understand that everyone has their own perspective on life: no two people grew up to have the same convictions and beliefs or think the same way.  The only “sin” in the world, is going against something YOU believe.  You own your own beliefs.

Don’t Make Assumptions encourages us to break away from our deep-rooted judgments and not jump to conclusions about people, their actions, or situations, and to not form unrealistic expectations.  Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama.  We should love people for who they are and not try to change them.

Always Do Your Best. This one is self-explanatory, but you have to redefine what your “best” is.  This changes day to day.  Some days you wake up and your best might be just getting out of bed and feeding yourself.  Some days it’s a lot more.  Your best is only what you can do, no more and no less.  There is no such thing as failing if you always do your best.  This way you will have no regrets, no guilt, no self-judgement.  Don’t let anyone else define “your best” for you.

Most importantly the book teaches us that happiness is a frame of mind.  It is a choice.  We can choose to be unhappy, and bring down the people that exist around us by spreading hate, gossiping, judging people, being closed-minded.  Or we can choose to free ourselves from the box that society tries to keep us in via their fabricated belief systems.  By doing this we lose our fear, jealousy, hate that the world creates for us.  And then what’s left but happiness, acceptance, and love?

A watercolor I did tonight of Jeff’s eye.  I wanted to try to capture his interesting colors, and practice facial features so I can get better at drawing and painting people.

My first watercolor.  I drew the tree first in pencil, then I took acrylic paints and watered them down for the color.

Given to my best friend as a present, I had to wait a couple weeks to upload this one.  :P  I finished it a little while before I started my nachos.

In any case, here’s what I came up with!

Bird of Paradise

Inspired from Planet Earth, a tribute to the animal that made me giggle the most.  I don’t have this color yet (the blueish-green) but hopefully I’ll be able to find something to be able to try it out.  Might be difficult to apply it over the black, but we’ll see.

Sakura – The Cherry Blossom

I’ve always been a fan of Japanese culture and imagery, and the cherry blossom tree is pretty popular.  Also an excuse for me to use more black and pink.  :)  I would say they’re my favorite colors to use for makeup.

Vanessa – The Butterfly

Sounds a little conceited to name one after myself so early on.  But I really wanted to take something and make it mine.  So, since my name is also used to classify certain species of butterflies, I decided to base my concept of them.  I got to use orange, gold, and a purplish blue in this one, as well as black and white liner.  I love these colors together, I may try this one without the spots tomorrow.  The shading on the browbone may be a little difficult though.

It took me about an hour to open up all of my oil paints.. I got them back in.. 1997?  When I first started taking oil painting classes in high school.  So the caps were goopy and hardened on there pretty tight.

I decided realism would be a little too difficult for one as rusty as I, so I wanted to go with a fun, bold, colorful, almost impressionism-style look.  Kind of reminds me of something you’d see hanging up at Quiznos.  Here’s my concept art!  I spent aaaaboooutttt… 30 seconds creating it.  Amazing huh?

I started out with just an orangey-red background as a base.  Then starting from the outside and working my way in, I did the chips.  Then put the cheese on them.  This part looks a little… I have to do it… cheesy!  I’m serious.  I think the cheese came out looking a little goofy.  So I went with that look and made it even more crazy and squiggly looking.  Then I added the sour cream, which covered up some awkward looking cheese spots, and then the rest of the toppings: tomaters, olives, and jalapeños.

Now to see if I can find a frame the right size!

Let me know what you think, facebook me, tweet me @nessagood, or comment above.