Envelopes

I haven't been too focused on art this past while. I'm sure I've done some things, but I guess I do my blogging in waves of memory. Recently, I've been on another mail kick. The cool thing about that is the envelopes. I make way too many to showcase them all, but here's a sampling. I mostly just doodle designs in colored pencil.....

I made this one to echo the stationary I used. That's a good motif to bounce off of.

Steampunk Vest

So I don't have a horribly clean picture of it finished, but you can definitely see that there's been some changes. The inspiration for this? Jeff needed a costume for the steampunk convention! I didn't have any time (or money) to get materials, so it's made out of two suede-esque shirts I never wear and jean material. 

I spent a day dying it all because I wanted more dark colors for this vest. Liza was wonderful enough to help me on color order. I was pretty limited in my options. XP

I think that the most challenging part of this was twofold: one, I was on a tight, tight deadline. It would have been great to have the time to mess around with it, take breaks, and generally not hate it's every thread and stitch by the end! XD The second, I wasn't using a pattern! And, without my boy around, I was pretty much making it up as I went along....I did the front and back, THEN THE SHOULDERS LAST. I feel this may have been more difficult then it needed to be if I had known the shapes of the pieces to begin with. then again, that's assuming I wasn't piecemealing my fabric together anyways. There was little room for oopsies. >.<

....Oh, that's hilarious. I just realized that I fitted the breastplate piece upside-down from the plan.....HA! I was wondering why the gold stripes up the sides didn't fit over the shoulders and then went in on the bottom....XD Oh dear, I WAS concentrating too hard! XD

But it turned out great! And some of the people at the convention who were selling clothes they made complimented him on it. ^^ Go me!

.....however, I am SO done sewing for a while. Not having a backstich lever sucks. XP 

The "pattern" I worked off of

Clothing

I went through one of my drawers, determined to get rid of the things I don't need/don't fit/wont wear. I did do a little of that. I also ended up resizing, combining, and cutting up clothing! I made a couple of tanktops out of too small or too big shirts and I also completely revamped this beautiful long-sleeved shirt. The sleeves were too tight/small, so I cut them off--instant tank top. But the shirt still didn't fit quite right, so I ripped out the back, put in a few grommits for lacing the top, and tied the rest together in strips. It looks amazing and I'm so proud of it! ^^

Cut off the sleeves, and added the black.

Stencil Spray

I was trying to distract Jeff from making me go to the Blue (which happened anyway) with some spray painting. I wouldn't say anything that came out of that was "art," but it has gotten me interested in stencils. I went on a cutting kick. Besides the two folders I did with Eliza's paint, I've yet to see how they work out. I need to buy some paint. There is a lot of wonderful spray paint art out there. Combine that with my interest in graffiti and this could well be an art form I could get into. I'll have to explore it some--when/if I can find the time!
Thinking in stencils is a lot like printmaking.....takes a sec to be able to think in positive/negative shapes instead of just lines. And sometimes I still go too detailed....

I was told to make a "high vegetable"

Candy Land

So my little brother and I concocted a present for my mother--a personalized Candy Land! We spent a good solid two days working on it and were both pretty sick of it by the end. But, I think we came up with some good  locations/ideas. I had to tell myself to let go at some points and let him do his thing--it was a joint creation after all. It was okay that he did it his way. Mostly.
I figured out a fun way to draw trees that I really enjoy!
Colored pencil for the pictures, colored paper for the squares, acrylic paint for the background, packing tape to laminate it, duct tape to cover the outside, cord velcro holders to keep it closed, washers and nuts and bolts for the game pieces, model paint to cover them, old file folders for the box and cards, trading card slips to cover the cards.
The velcro was my dad's idea. ^^
So the object is to get from our house to our cabin, and then back again. A few times playing it through shows that this produces the best game. *nod* The colors make it easy so any age can play! And the dots are forever infuriating.

Gummy Book Worm

Sharkey's Heath Bar

Fort Hershey

Peppermint Park

Grandma's Gingerbread House

Sugar Rush shortcut

Candy Mountain

Colorful sketches

Jeff was sitting in the bath while I was supposed to be working on my essay, when I got the sudden urge to write him a note. That turned into drawing and this silly little sketch came about.

I think I've been concentrating on my essay too much. It's analyzing paintings of Roman masks. Jeff came out of the bath and his hair was everywhere and I had to draw him as a medusa mask! ^^ I'm proud that it started out as a quick sketch in sharpee and resembles him pretty well. 

Inspired Dream

I had such a vivid, affect-filled dream that the images have stayed with me all day. From the two that I scribbled down before class, to the one I worked on at leisure, and the one I just got down to get it out of my head....

Colored pencils, while I like that you can layer, are often not smooth enough for me. Or.....perhaps I need the spendy ones. I've used them...so nice......

Emphemera

So I realized.....just a few minutes ago.....that I do art! And I wasn't even realizing it! And, yeah, I make stuff. But I do something that is totally and completely me. I have this habit of keeping interesting bits of things around. I pick them up off the floor or hold onto them or stumble upon them or acquire them in some way. Every time I bring something new home, I tape it to my wall. (When I was still living with my parents, I taped them to the back of my door--I've always done this!) So I make these crazy jumbled together types of arrangements of all these odd/interesting bits of stuff. How did I never notice that this was art?! Crazy. I do have an art that is all my own. ^^ It's just something I never consciously made as art. It was always just a part of how I operated....

Anyhows, enough with going on about how blown away I am right now. Here's a small one forming on my wall right now:

Basketry: Interlude

I was sitting around talking to Jeff and attempted to twine a basket out of grass. Don't twine with your ribs and the twining bit as the same material! SO confusing. >.<; It's teensy, but cute and I'm proud of it. ^_^

A Sleeper in Vine Charcoal

So I woke up this morning and there he was again in my bed. I love the way the light plays with him when he sleeps. This time, instead of taking pictures with my noisy camera, I sat on the edge of the bed and drew him. (Yay for large beds!) I don't usually like vine charcoal because it's so smear-able, but it seemed perfect for this. I could rub out mistakes almost as if erasing and I liked the play that gave me. He did move around a bit, but I managed to finish one. :)

This one's in graphite. A hard angle, and he kept moving!

Basketry: Update I

So, I've been working on the basket-making. I decided to make one for my mother for Mother's Day. Didn't quite get it finished, though. :/ I decided to try and put a turtle and wave design on it. Whew! Switching between that many colors is kinda hard. I'm using two colors together to make the blue water--one fluffy to give it some fun texture and the other a plain yarn so it's not teeny tiny. I'm also using two different colors together for the shell--the green I'm using for the turtle skin, plus some bright green floss (I hope I don't run out of it!). As you can see, I'm about halfway done. Interrupted by papers and finals....

Here's the almost complete first basket. I didn't know how to finish the top, so I made up a weaving method to make long straps. Perhaps they'll go together to make a loop? I haven't quite decided. You can see the wave pattern I decided on. It made a good intro to switching colors. 

Also, this type of basket weaving technique is called "twining."

Metal Activity Book

This is something I've been working on for a while and have recently picked up again as a project worth finishing (it may have something to do with the fact that I'm now dating a metalhead). It's actually really fun coming up with activities to add and metal-ifying them. Most of the bands represented here are folk-metal or some such. I have a more expansive list to work from now. Maybe after finals I'll have some new pages to put up? I think the hardest thing is that I'm working with a genre of music that I don't know much about. However, the book is humorous/interesting because it's combining conflicting stereotypes, so I suppose it's alright that I'm merely working off the metal stereotype. A note: the Slayer font is much harder to do than the font I decided on for the rest of the book. (Though why I decided that I wanted to draw every letter forever is beyond me. Least it looks cool. XP)

Basketry

So in my Native American Art History class, we learned how to make baskets! I opted to learn to make.....this kind, I don't remember what it's called, instead of a coil basket. You don't really need anything but the string and your fingers. Well, scissors to cut the strings, but that's it. I'm just learning, but this is what I have so far! It'll end up pretty small, but I'm okay with that. I wonder if it will stay that closed? Maybe I should weave it looser? *shrug* She explained basically how to do a pattern and add colors, so we'll see how that goes. I'm going to try and make a wave pattern around the middle. The process is very nicely repetitive. It would be fun to make a bunch of little ones as presents!

The Beginning

So. The purpose of this blog? I figure I'll use it to keep track of the different kinds of art I try. Maybe document my experiences as I learn. Sounds simple enough. Perhaps it'll even be interesting. :)

As it was just Easter, I'll start with the eggs I did this year! I had a lot of fun playing with multiple colors. Part of that was concentrating on layering light to dark dyes, and part of it was using a white crayon to preserve sections. This is an interesting way to think about layering ink in Printmaking as well....

(Funnily enough, I made that potholder as well, a long time ago out of twine and newspaper and LOTS of glue. It was an experience. XP)