I believe in magic

I believe in magic.

I really do.

Not fairies or witches or superheroes (though occasionally, I sort of hope), but the kind of magic that can only be found in the human mind.

I absolutely believe in magic. Because I've read hundreds of books in my life. Some were good. Some were bad. Some were so captivating and inspiring, I'll probably never get over them.

Books can fix you. They will get you through the good times and the bad. They can be your best friends and your worst enemy. A great book will take hold of our minds and cling to it long after we've finished.

Books transform you. In an instant you can be anyone you want to be, living any life you like. They let you live in beautiful realms, fight monsters, or just fall in love. Books can do anything.

Books will change you. They'll make you happy, they'll make you sad, they'll make you so unbelievably angry. Books will absolutely hurt you. But as a reader, you're a masochist, so you'll kind of like it.

And despite popular belief, books are absolutely for everyone. Old, young, smart, and stupid. If you haven't given books a try, you haven't really be living your life to the fullest.

C.S. Lewis once said, "You can make anything by writing." That's because writers are real life wizards. They let us do impossible, wonderful, horrible, beautiful things.

Books are everything. They are the best thing that will ever happen to you. You just have to give them a chance.

I believe in magic. And that magic is in books.


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The Reviled by Kait Wall (Cover Art)

Art UPDATEEEE!!

So it's been a while since I updated my blog! Sorryyyy...

I've been doing a lot of nail art lately and working hard on my novel. But I haven't forgotten you figurative reader babies that I love.

No one reads this. I know. I'm talking to myself right now.

La la la!

ANYWAYYY,

I thought I'd just post a quick update on the paintings I've done recently.

And here are some details. Because the quality of the picture above is shit and I really love this one. It is my absolute favorite.

Anyway, I hope you figurative reader babies know that I love love love you.

More things to come!

Want constant updates on my wonderful life (particularly paintings and nail art)? Follow me on instagram and twitter!

Instagram: @graitkait
Twitter: @KaitEWall

PB&J: A Love Story

It's been a few days since my last entry. So I thought I'd share a little "fan fiction" I wrote about 8 months ago. I just love shoving in as many fucking adjectives as possible into one sentence, can't you tell?

And believe me, I'm aware of my unending cleverness.


    Tucking a long strand of strawberry colored hair behind her ear, Jelly tried her hardest to keep her eyes firmly directed at her book and not on the spectacle going on only a few yards away.
     P.B., her best friend and the hottest boy on campus, was having yet another heated fight with his on and off girlfriend, Honey.
     He’d caught her with her sticky hands all over Butter, a long time rival of his.
     Honey reached for P.B., attempting to use her gooey sweet charms to get out of this particular sticky situation.
     Stepping away from the golden haired beauty, P.B. walked away.
     When she realized he was heading her way, Jelly tucked her head back into her book, biting her cherry flavored lip nervously.
     “Romancing the Preserve?” came a voice.
     Peeking up over her novel, Jelly tried to smile up at P.B.
     “You’re too much of a romantic, J,” P.B. informed her.
     Jelly shrugged shyly as he took a seat beside her. “I cant help it,” she murmured softly. “Are you okay?” She glanced at Honey who was glaring at them and talking fiercely to her friends Maple and Syrup.
     P.B. rolled his eyes. “Who needs her anyway?” He said. His hand moved and covered hers gently, uniting them. “I’ll always have you at least.”
     Jelly’s cheeks darkened to a bright peach and she smiled sweetly. “Always,” she agreed.



Obviously, I ship P.B. and J. Though don't get me wrong, I love me a good honey and peanut butter sammich every now and then.

It's not my best work, but you can fuck right off if you don't love them.

I'm pretty sure you'll see a lot more of these lovesick condiments soon...

Love love love!

A (really bad) Eye Tutorial

I've been asked before how I paint eyes. It's actually a very easy process that I developed watching a bunch of other artists paint eyes and combining their methods to suit me. I thought I'd share a few pictures and tips.

Most of this is done with the wet on dry technique in watercolor. If you want to add in the splatters of color I usually have, you'd do wet on wet and just kind of go crazy. There's no rhyme or reason to splatters.

First, I start with line art, I like to use very light pencil lines or sometimes water soluble pencils. I decide where the light is hitting the eye and block out the spaces I'd like to keep white. Then I decide on the color I'd like to have peaking through. This isn't usually the color that the eye itself will be. In this case I chose a golden yellow.

Then you want to start with your lightest shade of the main color of the eyes (in this case green). Put that around the edges and using a wide, thin brush (of if you're doing smaller eyes, a very thin, pointed brush) and push the color up toward where the pupil will be. You do the same thing again with a darker shade of the main color. If you think you're covering up too much of the yellow, just throw in a couple lines of yellow and you're good. You'll want to do one last shade of green, very dark, around the edge and have a few thin lines of that throughout the iris. As you're coloring it's okay if you get a few lines in your blocked out white area, it'll add dimension to the supposed light in the eyes.

After you do the iris, paint the pupil in. After you fill in your pupil, you'll want to bleed a SMALL amount of black into the iris.

Then you'll want to add shadowing to the iris.I just do this black on the very top, bleeding it into the pupil, and then add a few thin lines of black here and there.

Line the eye with a VERY light shade of pink, add in even lighter lines of pink on the whites of the eye to add depth, as well as light shading at the top of eye.

Then you just give her a lid and paint in the lashes. Make sure you put it on the edge of the pink line on the bottom lash. And do the lashes very very very last. Not only because it's most likely going the be one of the darkest things on your painting, but also because it's a pretty satisfying way to end your painting.

And there you go, a decently simple way to paint somewhat realistic eyes.

Love love love!

Kait

Shit, I'm fabulous

I painted a banner for the top of my blog. It's perdy.

So, I think in honor of that exquisite work of art... ahem... I'll show everyone the work I do that's actually, you know, worth a crap.

I recently learned how to use watercolors. And I've basically only done faces.

Quite the range, eh?

I wish I didn't have to say this, but please don't steal my stuff and pass it off as your own. That would be a pretty fucked up thing for you to do, bro. Don't. This is mine. Look. Don't touch.

Love love love

Kait

P.S. I don't have a scanner. Can you tell? lsgjdjgsfj Shitty.

Introducing... Kait the idiot

So... I write a lot. Last week I was working on my novel for six hours a nigh every night.

And while it pays off (I'm currently two thirds of the way through revisions, yayyyy), it can make me a bit loopy.

Case in point:

I accidentally printed my entire novel at work this week. I was taking my lunch break and working on the book at my desk and hit what I thought was the quick save button.

Clearly, it wasn't. The save button and the print button are right next to each other. If you ask me, that is quite the design flaw for Word to have, but whatevs, I'll just buy the office a package of paper and call it even.

And while I'd normally be really happy to have all 300 pages of my novel printed out and in my hands, this was only halfway finished a the time of printing. So... yeah.

I'm basically an idiot.

Anyway, I thought, in honor of my success at being a ditz, I'd share with everyone the blurb on my novel, a few comments and descriptions of some of the characters, and maybe a few other things.

But you'll all have to wait till tomorrow. I know. I'm so mean. I also need sleep or I'm going to do another dumb thing. Like print out 300 useless pages for a second time

*so much facepalm*

And just so you know, I pretty much love anyone who is actually reading my blog at this point. I don't know if you're out there, but if you are, I'm blowing you kisses as we speak.

Love, love, love and see you tomorrow!

The clear love affair between McGruff and I

So this is what I did today.

And no, that's not my nipple. I know, you're so very disappointed.

He was "donated" to me. And we had a good time singing together tonight.

Have I mentioned I don't have a lot of friends?

And you wonder why, HA!

NOT a love triangle

Well I don't have much to blog about today unfortunately. I got a new car this week. The local weeklong holiday in my town (UBIC, Uintah Basin in Celebration (it's a lame name for a decent event unfortunately)) happened.

Other than that, it's been a pretty good week for writing. I'm starting to think I might just reach the deadline I've set myself. That deadline being finish revisions by the end of the month.

WOOO!!

So I'll leave those of you that may or may not be watch with this passage I just finished working on from Grim's Soldiers:

Noah got up, but Harvey stopped him. “If you ever give me any reason not to trust you, I will end you,” Harvey told him. “I may not know January that well anymore, but I know enough. She’s lived in this town all her life. She’s family around here. So if you hurt her, I’ll hurt you." 

“Alright I can handle that,” Noah said, his voice almost good natured. “But I have a few things to add.” He stepped forward, staring right at Harvey, emitting danger from every pore. “If you ever give me any reason not to trust you, I will end you as well, faster and easier than you could have done to me.” He smiled slowly. “And January has become rather important to me recently. I do know her. Better than she knows probably. So if you ever hurt her, I will destroy you.”

Noah stepped past him, following January out into hallway. 

If they had been in fact vying for the position of alpha male as January had suggested, Harvey wondered if he’d just lost.

Pretty great, eh? I'm proud of it. I like the interaction between my two favorite male characters. But maybe that's just me. And no, this is not a conversation happening in the midst of a love triangle. I think we've had enough love triangles for a while, don't you?

Anyway, wish me luck. Hopefully I can finish a few more chapter of revisions and touch ups before work tomorrow.

Animals are basically the devil

Even though I have a novel to work on, I am the firmest believer in the art of procrastination. And I believe it is a skill that MUST be practiced, honed if you will. Procrastination is not something to be taken lightly. It is not for everyone, and only the very best can achieve the level of procrastination that I show every day.

So I'm going to tell everyone a story.

I kind of hate animals.

Now, I'm not saying I want to hurt animals or anything. I'm really not okay with animal cruelty. It's not cool guys. I mean I'm no vegetarian (mmm, chicken), but animals are living beings and have pain receptors and whatnot just like humans. If a cow or pig must die to be made into food, it shouldn't be tortured. If an animal is a performer, it should not be treated cruelly. Dog and chicken fights are pretty messed up. And if you beat your dog, you can go fuck yourself.

That said, I don't trust animals. They're kind of bastards (goats being the prime example here). I'm sure it has something to do with instinct or something I don't understand and don't care to. But most animals appear to be plotting my demise.

Now dogs. I love them. I have a one eyed bulldog and a chiweenie and I love them like my children. But dogs are kind of assholes, lets be honest. When I was eight, a neighbor's dog bit me. I wasn't even provoking her, just walking up to the house, and that little dog ran around the house and took a chunk right out of my thigh. Scared the absolute shit out of me. Now, I'm not scared of dogs anymore, but I sure as hell should be after that!

Also, I don't understand what the fuss is about when it comes to animals sometimes.

Horses for example. We all knew that kid in school who was just obsessed with horses. Girls are especially bad about this for some reason. I know girls who just lose their goddamn minds over horses. "Oh my goddd, did you see that horse? Oh my goddd, it's so majestic and beautiful. Oh I looooove horses, they're such wonderful creatures." Then they promptly feint into a pile of feelings.

And the whole time I'm just thinking, "Are you seeing those fucking TEETH? Christ, those could bite off my ARM! This horse is going to literally eat me! I am about to be devoured by a carnivorous horse! IT'S GOT THE HUNGER, I CAN SEE IT IN THOSE WEIRDLY EYELASHED EYES! GET ME AWAY FROM IT BEFORE IT STARTS MUNCHING ON MY FLESH!"

Clearly, I am not part of the horse fandom that seems to exist among young women.

And BIRDS! Shit, don't get me started on birds.

Birds are basically the meanest fuckers around. Alfred Hitchcock got it fucking right when he made that movie.

When I was probably 11 or 12, we had this green parakeet named Yoda. And he loved everyone but me. He personally went after me whenever we brought him out of his cage. I'm still not convinced he didn't try to murder me in my sleep.

And a couple years ago we had chickens who attacked me whenever I tried to feed them. They were totally cool and chill with my dad and sister, but if I reached for their food troth, they suddenly became viking warriors and my arm became nice, ripe lands and people, ready to pillage and murder. It was not pretty.

Furthermore, I don't understand this craze with owls. Owls are loud, and creepy, and are nature's equivalent to Regan from the Exorcist. They're not cute guys. Not at all.

In conclusion, animals should not be trusted. And we should definitely treat them nicely, or they will straight up eat your soul (a scientifically proven FACT, I'm pretty sure).

I guess I should get back to writing... Ughh.