The Chief

Here is a sketch of The Chief, a character in our story for the group project. The character Isabelle has been scrapped but will remain up to track the progress of both my independent studies and the group's work.
I think my main struggle with this was making him look old. The Chief is supposed to look like an older man. I have always struggled with drawing guys in general, and making him old was a struggle.
However, I feel like I did a good job for my first try at it.

I will be posting again ASAP. I just need to finish a few more sketches for the group blog.
~Shannon

Family History Project

My initial reaction to this project idea.
We're supposed to be using our family history to showcase our topics.
Well, I don't exactly know how to incorporate anime. I suppose I could try and draw something for it, but I feel like I'm not at that level. Even if I could do it, how could I use my research in it? In what way do I put the actual research there?
I think I may have an idea or two. Maybe one of those videos where you draw something in time lapse. I don't know how to explain that idea... it's been in commercials before I believe. Basically you film the paper as you draw out a story, then speed it up.
Other than that... maybe a mural? Again, I don't see how the actual studies can be brought in.
I guess I'll continue thinking about it.

Character Sketch 1- Isabel Smith

So, here we have the reason I haven't done any work on this blog.

I've been working on her for a while now. I'm going to be drawing all of the characters. The girls are easier to draw than guys, so I started with her. I wanted to get a sort of rhythm and style down. 

I decided to go simple with eyes. In the bottom left corner is the chibi-ish character version that I will be drawing for the actual animation.

Over all I think that she was a success.

 Changes I would probably make to the drawing? The eyes definitely. The body shape is something I have to work on. Shading? Clothing? Maybe I'm being too critical of myself. Then again, I've always thought that the artists who criticize themselves push themselves to do the best work, so I suppose it's for the best.

That's it for now.
Sorry for the delay in posts.

~Shannon

Digital Art Practice

I worked on my digital art today.
I'll be using a different technique for eyes while drawing on the iPad. The reason for this is that it is easier to do some things digitally rather than on paper.
I have done two drawings, one close up and one further away, of Marceline from 'Adventure Time'. I feel that my practice with proportions helped me to shape the drawings.
These will soon be posted on my deviantart.
I don't have much else to say about them other than I like them. I feel I did a good job, especially on the second one.
There you have it.

~Shannon

Practice

So I worked on some features that I wanted to practice yesterday.

I practiced proportions using the 7 line system. With this system you draw 7 evenly spaced lines and match the proportions to them. The first line is the top of the head, the second is the chin, third is the bottom of the chest, the fourth the waist, the fifth mid-thigh, sixth below the knee, and seventh at the ankle.
From there you shape the character.
I think I made some progress in proportions, though I could definitely use work.

The second thing that I practiced was eyes. I wanted to work on the shading of them. I did 5 designs and ended up choosing one that I'll be sticking so for a while.

Finally I tested my eyes. The drawing that I did ended up smearing a little bit, but otherwise turned out alright for a practice drawing.

I'll attach the drawings in the order they are mentioned in this post.
That's all for my practice.

~Shannon

Quick Update

I would like to make a quick note of a change I made to the blog.
As you can probably see, on the left hand side of the blog I have added labels. This way you can quickly find specific blog posts.
That's all.
~Shannon

Style Practice

So, I have decided that the first thing that I will work on in this class is a study of drawing techniques. I am currently practicing techniques and style on my own, so it would be good for me to post it here.

A list of things that I need to practice:
-Eyes
-Body proportion
-Noses
-Shading
-Color
-Clothing

Today I practiced eyes. I wanted to test out a style I had used while drawing on my iPad.
I then began to try and draw it by hand in my sketch pad. What I found was that the style was difficult to achieve through paper, and it made the girl look somewhat crazy.
I began to test multiple styles of eyes before settling on one.
I am not satisfied with the eyes used here, so I'll continue testing eyes for a while.

On another note, I am now testing the blogger app. I'm not sure how the pictures of the drawing will attach, but I'm going to attach them on to this anyways. As you look through them it begins with my original drawing of the eye, and then progresses through my different tests of eyes. The last one is the final product.

In other news, I'll be posting my 'fangirl dictionary' some time tonight.

That's it for today.
Seeya!
~Shannon

Quick Update

I'd just like to take a moment to explain what I've been doing lately.
I've been formatting and writing the dictionary of 'fangirl terms' I promised. My goal is to have it up and running by tomorrow or the next day.
Thanks for your patience.
~Shannon

To Do

This is mostly for my own reference, but I'd like to take a moment to talk about what I'll be doing before I really delve into research for this blog.

• Create a dictionary of fangirl terms. This will be placed on an entirely new page on the blog for the reference of the readers. It will be updated as needed.
• Update DeviantArt. Here I would like to post my most recent art. I haven't been able to post most of the stuff I've been working on lately. So I'll be doing that and reviewing some on here.
• Post the first vlog to my channel. This is going to take some work because I'm not exactly sure what to talk about yet. I suppose I'll just introduce my topics.
• Create an anime playlist for OSTs and AMVs and go over the songs that I enjoy
• Review the anime and manga that I've watched/read. 

That's it for now. From there I will begin to work on my actual research. 

~Shannon

A Walk Through My Blog

Hello everyone and welcome to Squee!
I'm Shannon and this is my brand new blog. This blog is going to be used for Critical Thinking Gifted, a course I am enrolled in for Freshman year. This year we were told to pick a topic we were excited about and research it, and then blog about our progress while we learn. For the entirety of first semester I studied art history. This semester I have decided that I don't want to reasearch that topic anymore and swapped over to something that I am much more passionate about: anime and manga.
I feel as though I should define the word 'squee'.
To do that I need to explain what a fangirl is.
A fangirl is a girl who is very excited about a specific topic. I've typically heard it used to describe fans of anime and manga, but I've also heard it used for fans of television shows, movies, books, etc. One thing is certain: fangirls are crazy about whatever it is they're a fan of.
Occaisionally the term fanboy is used, but it is more common to hear fangirl.
So now, onto the word squee. Squee is a term typically used by fangirls to describe the squealing that ensues whenever they discuss the thing that they are obsessed with. It's exactly like squealing except more specific to fangirls.
I suppose I'm going to have to create an entire post on the vocabulary of fangirls. We have a lot of words that don't make much sense to the outside world. That will come soon.
So, the title of this blog pretty much sums up every anime out there. Every single one has a set of people who freak out at just the thought of it.

I suppose the reason for this entry is to explain how the blog is set up (the real reason is actually that I can't wait to get this started. I'm so excited).
When viewing this blog on the web version (the mobile is a bit different, as I've learned when viewing the blog from my iPad) there are multiple different links.
Along the top you'll notice links to my YouTube and my DeviantArt. Those will both be put to use during the course of my research.
My deviantart will be used to share any art I have, most of which is anime based. It always takes me some time to post my art there though. We don't have a scanner so I have to rely on my dad to scan all my art. So it gets posted a while after it is created. Ill be sure to take pictures and post them here anyways. They'll most likely be bad quality though.
As for the YouTube, I will be creating Vlogs to talk about anime. I'm not sure how often I'll vlog or what I'll talk about, but I will.
On the left hand side of the blog you can see my pageviews and my blog archive. There you will be able to find previous blog entries.
On the right you'll see a picture from one of animes that I've watched, Ouran High School Host Club, in which there are many fangirls. You'll also find my top 5 most popular blog posts and a list of all of the animes and manga that I've watched or read. If you hit any of them you'll be led to the Wikipedia page for each, so that you can learn what it's all about. I may be starting a separate blog/ page to review all of them eventually.

That's it for now. Look out for a new post soon.
Thanks for reading!
~Shannon