January Art Hop and Some Silmarillion Stuff

So yesterday I attended my first Kalamazoo Art Hop. It was actually a lot of fun! For someone who hasn't had a social life since May, it was definitely nice to dress up and go out and meet people. As I mentioned in my last post, I joined an art gallery in downtown Kzoo that goes by the name of "Lotsa Little Things." They have everything from jewelry to chain mail to vials of faerie dust to crazy folk paintings and more. It's a fun conglomeration of just about everything, and it's cool to see a group of artists come together like that.

I got to meet and hang out with several of the artists who are also featured in the shop. We talked about the merit of the new Hobbit movie, how on Earth they're making 3 movies out of it (I'm all for it btw), we chatted about old Doctor Who vs. new Doctor Who (they only liked the old ones, I'd only seen the new ones), and I even met a girl my age who talked to me about doing some collaborative stuff. I met a lady who I'm fairly certain was the twin of my watercolor professor from college. She's active in Native American rights and she works with a lot of different tribes, so I chatted her up about that for a while, since I spent some time on Native American reservations as well.

So basically. It was a great night. I'm so excited to get more involved with the crew, make some art friends, maybe make some cash on the side. Things are looking up in that regard.

On a completely different note! My sister is reading the Silmarillion (she's almost completely caught up with me and I'm fairly certain she'll pass me up soon) and has asked me to continue working on the series of Silmarillion illustrations I've been doing. So next on my list is none other than Melkor, who's basically Lucifer if we're comparing them to Biblical types. So we decided he'd look like a mix between the evil of a Balrog and the sly sleekness of Loki. Because if you're gonna be evil, you gotta look cool doing it, or no one would go for it. So here's a rough idea of what I think he'd look like. I was just playing around with armor and things. The final painting will be done in watercolor. Because apparently I like a challenge.