I moved my blog.

So you can stop reading this one. I decided I like wordpress more than blogspot. So now y'all can stalk me at darlson.wordpress.com!

I'm leaving this picture up because I think it is rad.

Another not drawing

The name of this blog is stupid. I need to come up with a name that actually says it's a general ART blog, not a drawing blog.

I made this in Adobe Illustrator in August 2009.

My younger brother Ryan was the vice-president of his senior class student body in his high school, and they wanted to make a banner to use at pep rallies. He enlisted my help, and we collaborated and came up with this idea.

I had never used Illustrator before, and asked a friend in my ward to teach me the basics. I dinked around with the rest of it, and after a few hours' work, finally came out with this beauty. I was pretty proud of it. I still look at it every once in a while and find flaws or things I could do better, but whatever. "It doesn't matter, it's een dee past!" -Rafiki

I promise I'm not a girl.

Also, I promise that I actually do draw. This is, admittedly, my second post about flowers. Out of a total of two.

I figured I should/could/would post my recent creations from my Floral Design class. Mostly because i don't have a scanner and therefore haven't scanned any of my drawings. Or at the very least, my ambigrams or other artistic works. For now, I'm going to settle with my floral designs.

For one week's lab, we were to make a Dutch Spiral bridal bouquet... all right. For a single guy, this doesn't have many post-class uses. Imagine, given BYU culture is what it is, a guy giving this to a girl. "Hey Emily! Let's get married!"

"Hey David! Let's not."

Hmm. No thanks.

It was certainly fun to make, though. Everybody likes roses. They certainly aren't my favorite flower, but they are pretty. I liked the greyish maroon satin-looking roses. There are two in this bouquet.

The total of eight roses are complemented by some white stock flowers and some purple waxflower. Often, in bridal bouquets, florists will wrap the entire handle in ribbon, which is what I did. The mandatory pin at the base to secure the ribbon is then usually supported by a variety of different designs made with different colored pins. As you can probably see, that is what I did.

I was pretty proud of how it turned out. It certainly looked weird on my kitchen counter, though.

But I like this. It's much more practical.

For the class's final lab [two weeks ago], we were given a choice of a glass cube and a variety of flowers in which to make a cube design. I had a lot of fun with this one. The main flowers to use were a Gerbera daisy and a Persian buttercup. I decided to make a spring-themed bouquet with primarily red, orange and yellow. I figured it would be a good way to celebrate the entrance of spring, but Provo decided to snow recently. Provo is weird.

I love the golden Persian buttercup. The spray roses didn't last very long; I recently threw them away. The red, pale green, and orange carnations are looking fresh as always. The Gerbera is finally fading. The Peruvian lilies opened up quite beautifully after a few days.

I'm straight. I'm normal. I just appreciate flowers, ok? Haha. And I have an aesthetic eye for designing.

As they [may] say in Madagascar, aza manka hala [i probably butchered the spelling] -- "don't be a hater."

Wait, this isn't a skedoodle!

Yeah, I lied. Sorry.

I figured I'd leave a first post with something cooler than half-baked scribblings poking fun at current pop culture. I'll post that when I finish it.

I'm taking the Floral Design class, and today after class, I was quasiflirting chatting with one of the TAs, and she mentioned that this week, there were a buckets full of free flowers left over from previous weeks' classes and labs. I was one of the first ones down there, so I managed to snag some of the best ones!

Some beautiful blue Dendrobium orchids

A large anthurium

Two roses

A carnation

bird of paradise

bells of Ireland

assorted foliage

I through them together in an extra vase I had, and I'm pleased with the result. It's not very well planned out in terms of color, but I still like it.

Take floral design. You get to learn flowers, how to design cool things, and it teaches you skills to impress girls [Ladies, what if your husband gave you tropical flowers? Yes.]