Abyssal Refuge

Been a while since I made a post - of course, reason being I've been busy beyond sanity. All-nighters are abundant. In fact, right now I'm running on 50 minutes of sleep in the last 48 hours, so bear with me if I start rambling. This is going to be a long one anyway. But for something completely off topic to start out... I did effectively turn 23 yesterday. For those of you who tried guessing my age...well, nice try, you were close. :] It was a bittersweet day, really. Nice because I have many amazing friends and family members who look out for me and send me sweet birthday wishes. But also 23 is the age all us military brats lose our military dependency status. Technically, we could extend it to 26, but it'd be $200/mo, and my family can't afford that. This wouldn't be a big deal if I could afford another source of healthcare. That, plus it's hard on me because originally, I was already supposed to be an officer by now with my own means of healthcare..

For assignment 9 we were required to draw something on three 18x24" pieces of paper, rip them up, and then put them back together in some way. Yes, the cat did walk all over those pieces before I drew on them because kitties can't resist the strange new "sleeping pallets" on the floor. I didn't care because it'd end up being a shredded piece anyway. People did a really nice job with this project and put their pieces together pretty strategically...some with flecked color here and there (while our primary medium had to be charcoal), and some even used the tape on the outside as a new texture. We weren't allowed to talk about our pieces at all. It was just the class critiquing us and interpreting as they saw the various pieces. Despite the simple line work, I was told my style is very distinguishable - so that's cool. I went for a shattered mirror effect...with chains, dead trees, and a scared female in the reflection. It went along