Clementine's Blog!

The Resurrection

2016-07-18T23:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a while! Two years?

What happened to Clementine?

Well, when she wasn't blogging, she was off doing real things. Here are some things Clem did – instead of blogging – for the past two years!

In summary:

Clem shed her braces and blossomed into a slightly less awkward young woman. Her sister graduated high school and left Clem behind, much to her combined sadness and relief. Clem took an overwhelmingly cool Cognitive Neuroscience class over the summer and became even more of a nerd.

When little Clem entered Junior year, she was confronted with Real Life Things, like Lots of Homework and Standardized Testing and College Anxiety. Fortunately, the blow was softened by some cooler things like Compulsory Volunteering and Real Emotional Catastrophes. She learned graphic design, started volunteering at the wildlife hospital in Herpstown (close to Derpsville), and witnessed large mammalian death firsthand. She remembered somewhere in there that she really liked reading. Clem also improved her music taste. She made some impulse decisions, reaped the rewards of the good ones, and paid for the bad ones in full.

Clem went through a few boyfriends, and some not-really-boyfriends.

That summer, Clem went to Nerd Camp for a month and studied Regenerative Tissue Medicine. She met this one tall audiophile, Ben, who quickly became pretty important to her. She started her Senior year in a frenzied state of college application stress, a state which was quickly compounded by relationship-ending stress and grandfather-death stress and ex-boyfriend-running-away-from-home stress, all of which led to less sleep (and more skin problems). Boo.

Fig. 5: Ex-boyfriend-running-away-from-home stress.

Fig. 6: Skin problems.

Eventually, thankfully, the stresses went away, Clem finished her college applications, and her skin got better, too! Things got interesting after that. Clem probably tripled her music consumption rate and attended a few awesome concerts. She made time every month to see Ben the audiophile, who lives very far away. She read a bunch of books, stopped caring about class, got into her top college, graduated high school, and got a couple of jobs. She simultaneously began doing "anything-but-dry-cleaning" at the dry clean, and real, commissioned graphic design on her off days. ("Real" as in making book covers for her dad. Nepotism at its finest. It's real enough for her!) Clem started training for the marathon, too, and is fitter and healthier than she's ever been.

Fig. 7: The dry clean.

Fig. 8: "Fitter and healthier." Beware addictions of all sorts, folks.

I've been wanting to restart this blog for a long time now. Going through my files, I recently found some unfinished Clem panels that really weren't too bad. I even went so far as to make the first picture for what I imagined to be my "resurrection post" last year. Last year!

Good grief. As for right now, I'm not sure if I'll keep blogging consistently after this post. I just thought I'd do some sort of an epilogue, if you will, for Clementine's Blog!.

But honestly? Who cares anyway? I hope you're having a great day!

'Til next time,

Clementine V.

Spring Tour!

2014-07-16T11:29:00.003-07:00

Many things have changed since I first began this post, including an accidental malware download (curse you, MP3 conversion sites!) that forced me to wipe my computer clean. Though I saved most of my files, I didn't manage to keep all of them. So, unfortunately, that means I lost the necessary data on my computer to use my tablet.

Essentially, it's broken until I figure out what I did wrong! The non-comic images, interspersed throughout the rest of the post, are my replacements for what the images would have been (had I finished this post before my tablet was broken). I apologize for the – what, four months? – that I skipped! I'll see what I can do about the change in medium.

I started this post on the 7th of April. So, I'm not going to adjust the next few sentences, but just so you know – this isn't recent anymore. ;-;

Well, here goes:

Hi, guys! Let me start off this particular post by telling you that I can hardly remember what happened over the course of the last 4 (or was it 5?) days. I just woke up from about 22 hours of sleep. It was intense.

Now that I've confused you, though, I should develop some context. Here we go!

Spring Tour is an annual trip that the Vocal Music Program students at Derpsville High go on. It changes from time to time, depending on funds, but is typically a trip that visits different high schools around New Herpsire and culminates at a theme park. We do 'choir exchanges' with each high school, and go to workshops at surrounding colleges to refine our music. Then, with our last day, we spend 14-ish hours at the theme park, in case our vocal cords weren't completely wrecked already.

I cannot really remember what happened on the first couple days. I think it was kinda like this:

Day 1: I woke up at 3:15 AM, with a slightly sore throat, to get to school at 4:30. We got on the busses, drove somewhere to sing, and listened to other schools sing to us. I was alarmed at the differences between our school and other schools little under 8 hours away from us – it was a little sobering, actually, but also made me feel really lucky to live in such a safe area. Safe and nurturing. And healthy! (And rich, *cough* despite our constant complaints about state finance *cough*.)

I feel like Derpsville isn't really a 'normal' area. I don't know if I'm fully prepared for the outside world yet – we live in kind of a bubble around here. I'm thankful, but also a little scared to leave the proverbial nest.

The views expressed in this image do not necessarily represent the views of affiliated artists and/or residents of Derpsville.

In any case, we finally got to the hotel, and ate! We had some spare time before going to sleep, so some of us went and swam, and then went to bed.

Actually, one guy ended up cracking his head on the side of the pool when he tried to flip in. I wasn't there when it happened, but he had to go to the hospital and get staples in his head. Eek. ;-;

Meanwhile, I was walking around the city with my friends. I think this was still on Day 1, but I'm not quite sure. I ended up telling all my problems to a particularly cool person that I have never introduced here on the blog: I'll call him Trades, as he is, well, a teenager of many trades. Heh.

He listened to my problems and helped me out a lot. I'm going to miss him when he's gone. Him and my sister, and all of the seniors. Woah. ;-;

Anyways, by the end of the day my throat was burning and it sucked, but I tried to get some sleep.

Day 2: It felt like I'd eaten ground-up cheese-grater sandwiches for dinner the previous night (and I hadn't – I had pizza), so I crawled out of bed and told the choir director (Mrs. Folow) that I thought I shouldn't sing. She told me to sit out the first choir, and then to sing during the next two workshops.

The workshops turned out to be really informative and helpful, actually. They made our songs about 150% better! And it turned out that singing helped my throat, ironically, which came as a pleasant surprise.

Later, we had a lengthy lunch-break-thing on campus that was really fun. A group of friends and I – and Mrs. Folow! – were inspired by a group of visiting elementary schoolers to roll down the hill repeatedly. It was much more fun than I had expected. Really, it made me feel like a kid again.

I somehow didn't have a lot to say about Day 2, so I guess I have some missing hours there – oh! Wait, that must've been the day when we had the bonfire. :D

The bonfire was really fun. I'm not exactly sure what to say about it, but I had a really good time. And I did learn about some pretty awesome rap from a friend. I guess I could sum up the night like this:

This was going to be a comic equivalent of a montage! Too much mustard on hot dogs and running around on the beach and posing with a stick. That sort of thing. Man. I'm not sure how to replicate my vision with popsicle-sticks and cutouts.

I went back to the hotel and completely conked out, I think. Here's where I get even more confused about what happened.

Day 3: We woke up and packed and went to the theme park!

Talking about my day there would take up an entire post, so I'll just do a quick overview of what happened. :)

In a couple words, it was 'fun and confusing'. That's the best I can do. It was honestly a whirlwind of awesomeness, but a whole lot of disorienting, too; I couldn't tell if I was awake or asleep after a certain point, and had to keep shaking myself to tell.

In the lines for rides, we met a group of girls from a choir in another state. They were really nice, and we kept running into them as the day wore on, though certain people in our entourage could not work up the courage to talk to them. Here's where the lack of specificity in my artistic style really has an impact.

Maybe I should change up my artistic style a bit so that one can tell when people are wearing clothes or not.

We went on a bunch of rides, though I (being faint of stomach) abstained from a few of them. Well, only from two, the other of which I'd lost my fast-pass for. Apparently, though, the teacup ride was really trippy. I didn't go, but it was hilarious watching my friends when they got off. It was like they were high on theme-park magic.

I also made a best friend outside of the carousel. :) But that's a different story, for another time.

And since this story kind of loops back to the beginning, you guys know what happens next – we get on the bus, and endure the long drive back home. The next day, I started writing up this blog.

AND THEN FOUR MONTHS LATER I FINISHED. GOOD GOD. Maybe I'll get back to posting regularly soon, but for now, I have homework to do.

See you next time! ;w;

- Clementine V.

Where Did Clem Go?!

2014-04-16T17:04:00.004-07:00

Hey, guys!

Huh. I feel like the word 'did' in the title here shouldn't be capitalized, but I couldn't tell, so I decided to capitalize ALL of them. :D

In any case, woah! I went for way more than a week without blogging, didn't I? *gasp!*

I feel like I'm the only one who cares about seeing another post every week. But it's fine. Someday, that will change... And the whole WORLD will care!

... But for now, it's still just this:

I have an explanation for my slowness, though! But it's coming in the next post. :) The reason why I've been taking so long with it, though, is that I've been trying to be more social. It's crazy, right? Clementine: social! We'll see how it turns out.

So hold yer horses, folks! I'll be back in a few days (hopefully by the end of the week!) with a new post.

See you then!

- Clementine V.

The God of Small Things

2014-04-07T20:48:00.002-07:00

Hi, guys!

I can run again!

It feels great to run. I feel inclined to post a blog explaining how my life went spiraling downhill when my toe injury stopped letting me run, and subsequently led to me questioning my identity and stuff. Well, maybe next time. :)

This weekend, I had a crazy stressful time of crashed-internet-ness that was totally an impediment to my regular life. It was actually really difficult to get my English project done on time. So... I really think I should appreciate the Internet more when it is around!

Well, okay. That's enough internet-appreciation for one day. But next time you get annoyed with your computer, remember how awesome it is that you have access to this magical thing called the Internet. :D It is unfathomably cool. I think we sometimes take it for granted.

In any case, this weekend I was working around the clock on the aforementioned English project, without Internet access. Our assignment was to read a book, and then do a project on it from a list of possible options. I chose to make a 'memory box,' or a 'time capsule,' for one of the characters in the novel.

I read The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy. It was definitely one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. I highly recommend it to people who are not offended easily by some questionable content (child molestation, incest, nudity, vulgarity). The book is incredibly written, though – it's like a long poem full of refrains. Unfortunately, I don't think any free .pdf files of the book exist anymore, but you can get it on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/The-God-Small-Things-Arundhati/dp/0060977493. Warning: it's really sad. Soul-destroyingly so. Not the weepy kind of sad, but the weird, hollowly devastated kind of sad.

So, here are some pictures of my project. :D

Special thanks to Courtney for letting me use her super-nice camera. :)

If these images confused you (and they probably should've), feel free to read my seven-page explanation for it! It's written from Ammu's (the character I chose) perspective. I also attempted to write it in the same style as the book.

Explanation: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WTAJ4hsEOUH6oygRvWq_-djgvn_OStcGmKmp_QI2_Wo/edit

The spider (Lord Rubbish) at the top took me pretty much all day to make. It was really fun, though. I like him. :)

Also, unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the charcoal still-lifes underneath the spider. But they are there!

My posts should be getting more lighthearted soon. :D Yay for running!

See y'all next time. :3

- Clementine V.

Digital Piece/WiP

2014-03-30T10:51:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!

I'm sorry that the frequency and quality of the content on this blog has been going steadily downhill for the past month or so.

I wanted to explain the lack of funniness – lately I've been having a pretty hard time. I don't even have much of a legitimate reason to be having a hard time; it's just the mounting stress of not being able to run. But you gotta have sucky days to make the normal ones just that more awesome, right?

I can't find it within myself to be funny today. And I'm sorry about that. Hopefully I'll be better in a couple of weeks, but for now, here – have some digital art I've been working on.

In English class, we've been reading Macbeth, and accompanying it with clips from the movie Macbeth (2010). It's a spectacular movie, and it makes me want to take screenshots of every second – the lighting, setting, actors – everything about it is so beautiful. :)

So here's a painting of a screenshot from the 'porter scene'. I thought his expression and the lighting were really cool. You can watch the porter clip here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb6HFQPcEes, and the full movie (if you want :3) here: http://video.pbs.org/video/1604122998/

You can tell that there are a lot of differences between the screenshot and my painting – the forehead, the length of the nose (consequently), and the shape of the belly — but I wanted to show the comparison anyways so that I could learn from my experience. Plus, it was more of a lighting study than a portrait.

This was done in probably a total of 5 or 6 hours, on one layer, in CS Pro. I'm going to do some more from other screenshots in the movie, too. :) Lady Macbeth is terrifyingly gorgeous.

Here's an unfinished piece that I was working on:

Done with reference for the face, arm and hand, and using my sister to model the lighting for the legs. :) The girl came out looking a lot like me, which I find funny. I think it's just because I was using my own face to get her proportions right.

The hand in the background I should really fix. Just ignore that for now. :)

This was done in a total of... Too many hours, using CS Pro again. It's got a total of 21 layers (4 of which were sketching layers, one of which is invisible), a different layer for each shading level, etc. I'm gonna write down here what I should do next, just so that I convince myself to actually finish:

1. Take some pictures of my hand to finally get that background one down.

2. Add wall-reflection onto arms. (Already done on legs – the silvery stuff on the left-side)

3. Make background more interesting.

4. Shade hair.

5. Shade shoes and socks.

6. Add wall-reflection/backlight on clothes and hair.

7. Detailing/rendering? Make the whole piece more detailed. Texture floor, walls, hair, etc.

8. Luminosity/adjust to bring it all together.

See you guys next week. :) Sorry for the uninteresting blog.

By the way, there's a poll on the right-hand side of the page now – please pick two options if you have the time, and submit it. :D I would love to know what you guys are actually interested in. It would help me out a lot. :3

Bye!

- Clementine V.

The Taqueria

2014-03-22T17:17:00.003-07:00

Hey, guys!

I had quite the adventure today getting burritos for lunch. Allow me to elaborate:

I understood, of course. I have no problem with ordering burritos. Why should I?

But, you see, there is something inherently intimidating about places where most people can speak a different language from you. I wish I could speak Spanish at times like these, because somehow I feel like waltzing in and requesting "Je voudrais un burrito avec du fromage et des aricots" would totally not fly. Anyhow, I walked into the restaurant, rehearsing my lines in my head:

The time had come.

Then, I realized something. Something extremely important.

Scrambling, I rushed to think of a possible solution. I came up with 3 of them:

1. I could run away, and get my dad lunch somewhere else. Then I would have to tell him that I was so scared of asking the man to make me another burrito, that I went all the way down to the taqueria on the other side of town to get him his food.

2. I could run away, buy a disguise from the consignment shop across the street, learn Spanish, and come back to by the other burrito.

3. Or I could get back in line.

I decided that option 3 was probably the best.

Shamefully, with my metaphorical tail tucked between my proverbial legs, I walked to the back of the line. I tried to make myself seem less ashamed of my burrito-ordering failure.

And that was when I started to really wish I had taken Spanish. I knew that they were probably making fun of me, but I tried to grin back at them, anyways. So what if I had gotten back in line? Honestly, it was the only option I had.

After that, ordering was really uncomfortable, but I did it. Then, proceeding to the cashier's counter, I realized that maybe option 3 was not the best one after all.

That went on for awhile, but we eventually figured it out. I walked home in shame. I wonder how other people can be so confident ordering food. How do you do it?

It's all okay, though. The burritos were pretty good. :)

Oh, and I had some fun playing with Photoshop today. I would like you to meet my favorite bear:

Heck yes, it's a bear in a striped sweater and a backpack. You have a problem with it? I certainly don't.

See you next week!

- Clementine V.

Super Awesome Short Story!

2014-03-10T21:29:00.001-07:00

Hi guys!

I'm so sorry I didn't post this weekend!

And I still don't have a very legitimate post. D:

But, I did want to share some literature with you guys. I invite you to read a story of mine – I originally wrote it in freshman year, for my English final, but I rewrote it the other day to submit as an application to a neuroscience program. ;w; So, check it out!

Click here: Clem's Super Awesome Short Story :D

That's my excuse for the lack of blog this weekend. Sorry. :)

Some sketches of Billy and Regina, from the story:

At least, that's how I imagine them. They both don't look too fun to be around, huh. D: Maybe I'll change them up a bit later.

See ya! :)

- Clementine V.

30 Essential Expressions Challenge!

2014-03-04T20:16:00.001-08:00

Hey, guys!

To expand a bit on Clementine's character, and just to have some fun, I did an 'expressions challenge': but, since I'm pretty cool, I added another 5 to the original 25. :3 So... Yeah.

Sorry that I didn't have anything cool for you guys for this week, but hopefully you have fun with this. :)

See y'all next week! :D

- Clementine V.

A World of Clems

2014-02-23T20:00:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, when my thoughts are wandering, I find myself attempting to answer this one, well... Pressing question of mine. It comes back to haunt me: when I'm trying to sleep, when I'm writing up blogs, even when I'm eating my cereal in the morning. I find that I can't spend more than a week without wondering...

What would the world be like if it were entirely filled with Clementines?

Okay, let's scale it back a little. Let's just say this: what if I woke up tomorrow morning, and all of Derpsville was filled with Clementines?

You see, I feel like if everyone wondered this, it would make the world a better place. Seriously. I think it would suck to live here with only Clems for company, which means I should do a little self-improvement, right?
Psh, nah. But I'll make fun of the concept anyways. :3 Let's do this.

Firstly, my parents would be me.

Oh god, that's disturbing. Eww.

And what about the sports teams?

I feel like the school's diversity would suffer intensely – the fine arts programs would be packed, but other stuff, like Computer Science and Guitar and Culinary Arts and Mandarin (just to name a few) and all the sports (except cross-country and track) might have to be removed for lack of funding. Then again, nobody would like them anyways, because they would all be... Me. Weird.

I'm also really competitive, so what would happen to everybody's self-confidence? I really don't like things that look like I would have created them, but that I didn't (I don't know why). So would we just destroy each other? Would it become a dog-eat-dog world of passive-aggressive dominance? I feel like it would. And yet, on the global scale, there would be world peace, because nobody would disagree with each other. It would be so weird. And boring.

And let's not even talk about romance.

So I guess the entire population of Derpsville would die out in a generation. Darn. :<

But I wonder what we would all eat. If the Clementine-lunch-ladies there started serving only the things they liked to eat, it could be pretty good. But I'm also a horrible chef. So...

I guess we would be okay in Derpsville, but if this phenomenon occurred on the global scale, things would be pretty grim. I'm pretty sure... All of society would cease to function. Not enough psychodiversity. Yes, I just made up that word. But it sure sounds legit, doesn't it? :3

See you guys next time!

- Clementine V.

I Got the Boot

2014-02-23T14:29:00.001-08:00

Guys?

I got the boot.

No, no, I wasn't fired. I don't have a job to be fired from. What I meant was this:

Maybe I should've clarified: The Boot, not the boot. It's insane! I've had team-mates that have gotten it, but I never expected I'd be next. ;-; It's actually not too bad, though – now, instead of people not knowing/recognizing that I was injured, it's pretty obvious that I can't do normal-person things for the next 4 weeks.

Oh, I guess I've never mentioned my injury(ies). You see, waaayyy back at the end-ish of Cross Country season last year, I worked too hard and got some fancy medical thing (from over-use) that hurt my hip. It really sucked. I went to Physical Therapy during the mid-season, and I think during a little bit of that year's Track season. In any case, it got better in time.

Then, this year, it was the end of Cross-Country season and my hip was relatively okay. I had a pretty good season, even though I peaked a little bit before the end. The season ended, I took a long time off, and began conditioning. It was during the first week of this that I, well:

It kinda hurt. A little.
I ended up developing 'turf-toe', after a month of rest and a week of running (the start of Track). I ran a little too hard one day, recently, and it flared up – so I went to a sports-med doctor who prescribed me The Boot, and four weeks of no running.

I'll be fine, I think. I just really hope that this Boot will fix all of my injuries: my hip, and my toe. I hope I'll never have to yell at my right leg again. I had a pretty rough time, trying to accept the fact that I was injured, but I think everything will be okay.

I'm working on the next post, but it might not be finished until next week. Sorry, guys!
See you then. :3

- Clementine V.

2014-02-18T13:07:00.004-08:00

You know what I think is the prettiest complimentary color-combination ever? :3 Orange and blue. I think they rock.

So I decided the other day to create a character with a blue/orange color scheme. And I heard somewhere that one must always add story to one's artwork, so... I thought, 'story!' and my brain was like, 'dead rat?'

... Where did that connection even come from?

Damn! Why is it that every time I upload something super-colorful, it turns up slightly less colorful in Blogger? :< Imagine it's even ORANGIER. And bluer. :3

So, I ended up drawing a girl and a dead rat. For the past three DAYS I have been slaving over this baby. But it was worth it!

A wise artist put together an awesome digital drawing tutorial that I read a while back in which he said that a truly great artist never cuts corners, neglecting to work hard to make an art piece just THAT much more awesome. I guess I took his advice, as this is probably the longest I've spent on a digital piece. Sorry I'm rambling so much, but it was a really interesting experience for me. I hope you guys like her as much as I do. :)

And, in other news, I have all week off! Woo! That means you'll get at least one more post out of me this week. :D So see you then!

Bye!
- Clementine V.

My Weekend in Eight Panels (plus some other stuff).

2014-02-09T15:23:00.000-08:00

Hey, guys!

I had a lot of ideas for the blog this week, so I thought I would do a bunch of them. Together.

But to start, I think you guys deserve to know just a little bit more about me.

My name is Clementine Vertraut, and I live in Derpsville, New Herpshire, in the United States of Awesome. I'm a quarter Japanese (Mom's side) and some mix of German, Italian, (Dad's side) and Welsh (Mom's again). I live with my mom, my dad, and my sister. My parents are Republican, and so am I, sort of. But please don't ask me about politics. :3 I'm vegetarian, too, and I wear braces and have perpetual allergies that make me really sneezy. Like the dwarf. But! Back to my family.

James, my dad, is a science fiction writer. He's stern when he needs to be, but funny and sweet when he's in a good mood. He's an awesome comforter. ;w; My sister, Courtney, loves makeup, and acting, and is an exceptionally talented writer. She's also super compassionate. <3 My mother, Himiko, works as a computer-person for a very large company, and uses databases for a living. She's sort of a workaholic, but puts up with my annoying nature and drives me around to everything. She's also really involved in the school's activities. :D

I love a lot of things, and among them are art, running, singing, writing, editing (manuscripts or video :3), neuroscience, biking, the thrill of competition, cats, turtles, bunnies, and birdies. If you split the 'art' thing into categories, I love painting, drawing, digital artwork, charcoal, blacksmithery, and collaging. I love all sorts of media, like (primarily sci-fi/horror) books, action-y anime, horror/sci-fi movies, webcomics (of course!), manga, and a few TV shows. But that's a boring way to phrase all this. Let's do this a slightly more Clementiney way. >:)

And I love popish/weirdish people like Regina Spektor, Lana del Ray, and Lady Gaga. Okay, maybe I lean slightly more towards the pop side...
I also love Joss Whedon's stuff, so Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is among my favorite albums. ;w;
Electronic/dubstep is awesome, and The Glitch Mob, Blackmill, and Bassnectar are pretty much the only people I listen to. Well, the only people that Pandora recommended to me that I bought songs from.

I have friends, but I'll mostly introduce them as they come along in my artwork. I'll draw some of my closest right now.

Aah, that was wayy more than I expected to do. That's okay. Moving on!

I thought I could sum up my weekend in eight panels, four for each day. Let's do this.

... Oh, crap. Did it really take me all week to make this? Well, I guess this is an eight-panel account of last weekend.

Saturday: I kinda slept.

Sunday: I went to a race and ate bagels. :3

I wanted to make a little point about the awesomeness of comics with that, too. Sly, right? You see, the two sentences are boring beyond belief. But the comics really add something to them, don't they?

Oh, and did you guys notice? I got a new paint program. :3 My lines taper now!! It's so exciting!

See you next time. :)

- Clementine V.

P. S. - I invite you to admire that car in the second panel of the last strip. It's the most realistic car I've ever drawn. :3

Ducks to Give

2014-01-27T22:22:00.000-08:00

Warning: this post is going to contain some foul language. For those of you out there who are not into that, I'm sorry.

Wait, no, not 'fowl'. Um... You know what? Never mind.
Let's just... Let's do it this way! It was going to be a little different, but this will be easier to draw, anyway.

Do you guys ever feel like you just 'run out of ducks' to give?

I really, really try to give a duck about other people's problems. It's hard, though, sometimes. I mean, I only have so many ducks, right? So sometimes I really can't muster up enough strength to care about anything. Such as with people I see often, and are, perhaps, more prone to complaints than others.

Actually that wasn't a drawing of anyone I know.

But that's okay.

You see, there is one female in particular who just may live with me and be my sibling – let's call her 'Courtney' – but, for the record, she also might not. She's a great person! But sometimes I just can't make myself care about what she has to tell me. It's saddening to me, because I only have so much capacity for bull-crap and I wish I could put up with more, but it's obviously much worse for her. So when she's trying to tell me about her problems (which are well-founded) I sometimes... Eh, stop caring!

It isn't only her, though. I feel like I do this to a lot of people. Why? Maybe I just don't have many problems of my own, so it doesn't make sense in my mind for other people to have them.

Ah, well. A part of me is always telling me to change myself, be a better person, but I'm kind of stubborn. Even to myself.

I'm not sure if it's a healthy ego or laziness.

That's it for tonight, folks. I'm turning in. :)
Remember: if you ever run out of ducks, just go to the pond. Except if it's winter. Because then where are they? WHERE DID THE DUCKS GO?!

... As my good friend Holden was always saying.

Goodnight! :D

- Clementine V.

Technical Difficulties: Please Stand By

2014-01-22T18:48:00.000-08:00

An apology for the lack of post last weekend:

Freakin' technology. I'm gonna go learn how to get around stupidness.

See you in the next one! Sorry about this. :)

- Clementine V.

Birds

2014-01-11T22:37:00.001-08:00

Hullo!
This weekend, I have been abstaining from digital drawing and stuff.
So I decided I might show y'all some of the painting I've been doing as of late. Meaning, rather, today and yesterday.
So, sorry for a non-comic post. I've been thinking, though, that maybe I should make it an every-other-post thing... Because that's how it is so far, right? Hmm.

In any case, here, birds!

I really love birds. They're so beautiful. I never really attempted to paint them until a few months ago, when I tried charcoaling up a few red-winged blackbirds (my favorite!) and painted a goldfinch without yellow paint. It was really fun, despite the absurdity of a 'golden' goldfinch, and I picked it up again recently. ... Well, okay, yesterday.

There. A yellow-headed blackbird, a pied-billed grebe, great blue heron, a snowy egret, a rose-breasted grosbeak, a bridled titmouse, a tufted titmouse and *gasp* a black-legged kittywake. Phew. Don't you love the name 'kittywake'? I do. :3

See you next time!

Edit: oops, I meant 'kittiwake'. Darn. I like kitties.

Hot Glue

2014-01-04T23:06:00.002-08:00

So this year, I had a super-huge art project in school that I had to do for the first semester. It required a hot-glue gun, so I asked my father for one.

It was beautiful. My mind reeled with the possibilities.
[image]

And, quickly, I discovered the versatility of hot glue. Everything I had broken in the past could be fixed! It was like magic!

Not all of them turned out perfectly, but still, I tried. I was like a pioneer in the land of Hotgluia. I even found ways to not only mend things with the glue, but create things with it! Banshee tears? Yes. In any case, I had the stunning realization that pretty much everything could be fixed with hot glue!

I admit that it may have gotten slightly out of hand.

And that, folks, is the thrilling conclusion of tonight's chilling tale!

Yes! First 'legit' blog of '14. Wooo!

G'night, guys! See you next time.

Lazy!

2014-01-02T16:16:00.000-08:00

Hey! It's me again! Sorry if you were expecting somebody cooler. *sniff*

I wanted to say that I am, in fact, working on the next post! – but also kinda not. So, in the meantime, just to have something up here while I do my essay for English on Monday, I wanted to give y'all a sneak-peak of an art thing I'm doing. For now, it's a work in progress.

They're fashions inspired by the colors! I'll eventually have six of them, but for now you can have these.

Sorry for the lazy post today! I'll see you guys in the next one. :)

The Rock: Part 2

2013-12-29T18:43:00.002-08:00

... And, we're back, with the adventurous Clementine; as she faces her most epic battle yet!

One could say (as a matter of fact) that the struggle was, well, real. My about-the-strength-of-a-new-born-bunny muscles weren't very helpful and my descent was shaky, but still, I pushed on.

All of a sudden, I felt a prick in the palm of my right hand. I froze.

Being the awesome manlyman I am, (dat assonance!), I kept climbing and miraculously made it to the bottom. I promptly ran to the water fountain and rinsed it out.

And on the way, I noticed that very same businessman, sitting on the top of the hill, chuckling.

So, at this point I decided it would be a good idea to go home. And that was one of my only good decisions of the day. But I did it.
The whole time I was wondering whether or not people would notice just how much my hand was bleeding. I even ran into an old acquaintance of mine.

(Sorry - the first background took too long and I got lazy on the second one. Heh.)

The exchange was only about 20 seconds long and she let me out of her clutches relatively quickly, but still, it felt like an eternity! You know those people you don't particularly like but you know too well to just ignore? Ugh. I hate that. So, I waved goodbye with my good hand and ran to freedom.

This story doesn't have much of an ending, except that I came home, fumbling to grab my keys with my left hand, and ran to the bathroom to wash the dried blood off. My father came over and asked me how my run went, and I told him that it was fine, and that I'd just gotten a little scratch.

And that concludes my tale.
See you next time! :)

The Rock

2013-12-28T22:12:00.002-08:00

So, the other morning, I was supposed to meet my friend to go for a run. She didn't show up, so I decided that I would 'make decisions', and go for a run on my own! Whenever I do something like that, things turn out great, I assure you.

I asked myself, 'What should I do?'

This was a brilliant idea because, you see, one does not simply run to the Rock to run. One goes to the Rock do one of a few different things:

• Smoke pot
• Make out with someone's face
• Admire the view
• Drink liquor
• Rock climb.

And since I wasn't interested in doing any of the first of these things, I thought, 'Oh, why don't I kill some time by climbing a bit?'

I walked up the little stairs to the top of the Rock and was going to appreciate how high up I was for a bit, when I ran across a dapperly dressed gentleman on his laptop.

Granted, it could've been worse.

In any case, I decided to go over to the edge of the cliff to pretend like I was going to enjoy the view anyway, even though the dapper businessman was there and very clearly taking my seat. So I walked over to the edge and sat down, staring at the trees. And then I got bored and decided to climb down.

And I am so glad the businessman wasn't watching at this point.

And so the story continues... In the next blog. God, this is so much more work than I thought it would be!

See you next time, guys.

And, oh, PS–

I guess you could call this ending...

A cliffhanger.
Betcha didn't see that one coming. >:3

'Quick' Sketch

2013-12-23T18:48:00.002-08:00

Hi guys!

It's Clementine. I just couldn't stay away for another week!

This isn't part of my regular blogging storyline, as I have come to think of it, but I just sketched a quick face and I thought y'all might wanna see her. I like her a lot – even though it was supposed to be a self-portrait and turned into something completely different – enough to put her here!

Maybe it was also to prove that I can draw more than just stick-figures. :3

She probably took about an hour or so, and that's my excuse for the sloppy coloring job.

Man, I just wasted a lot of time. I better finish those Christmas gifts for my family. Damn.

See you later!

Good morning!

2013-12-23T10:25:00.001-08:00

Hello, internet!

This is Clementine.

And I'm not sure why the colors on this came out strangely – I swear that this was even more colorful and seizure-inducing before I uploaded it! – but it's fine, I guess.

And so, here's how I'm gonna do my blog!

• Please, lovely reader, keep in mind that all characters and events in this thing have been blown way beyond proportion for comedy's sake.
• I'll post something once a week, hopefully! I do, unfortunately, have other stuff to do, but I'll try, at least.
• If you're actually reading this, it would be awesome if you could somehow let me know! I would love to know that there are people out there who care about this.

So, yeah! I'll see y'all in the next post.

- Clementine V.