Costumed Sketch Night: Fairy Theme

Our model, Brittany

Last night was a really fun Costumed Sketch Night - and crowded! We had the most people turn out that we've ever had (which is good, but means I need to do a better job of spreading out the chairs).

We only had one model, Brittany, but her fairy costume was so elaborate, I don't think we'd have time to draw anything else. My friend Ruth (former co-worker at Camelot Treasures) knows Brittany and worked with her at the Renn Faire. She emailed me a picture of her in her fairy costume and was like "YOU NEED TO DRAW THIS" - and so I did.


Two Minute Sketch with Bow & Arrow

The theme was Fairies, but since we only had one fairy, we had a lot of props (and she had a lot). Again, her costume was amazing - she had a pan flute, and a bow and arrow - all kinds of cool stuff to play with!

I did a lot of drawings, but I am thinking of trying to simplify my style some for the next one... or at least doing some underlaying scribblyness in light pencil and then overlaying it with ink. Oh wait! You guys don't care! You can see all the pictures and sketches from Sketch Night here


Next Costumed Sketch Night has no theme currently, so if you have suggestions, let me know!
July 30, 7 - 9 pm

Theme suggestions so far for next month's Costumed Sketch Night: adventurers/safari, kaiju battle, traditional Japanese clothes, villains, vampires, Trekkies, zombies, togas/Greek

Art-Craft Challenge: Week 3 Final

Finished Flying Cupcake - Unfinished Winged Lady

SMALL WINGS: I... love cupcakes. And I want to put wings on them. Unfortunately, I could only make two winged cupcakes, since I only had two sets of small wings. They now hang over the mirror by our entranceway, so I'll post a picture of that soon so you can laugh at me. And my plaster/papier mache angelic bakery goods.

LARGE WINGS: It's hard to find things to put large wings on. They're about six inches across (per wing). I started out by gold leafing a pair, and attaching them to the model of a dressmaker's model, which has been sitting around for a couple of years. BUT I still have 2-3 pairs of the large wings. Hmmm... For the moment, "The Lady" is unfinished, I'm trying to decide what else to do with her.!

Art-Craft Challenge: Week 3 Materials

Each week, I'll select 2-3 items I've had 5+ years and use them in a project. And I'm going to document it online in order to trick myself into thinking that the nameless internet hordes care, and I must appease them.

Papier Mache Wings (had 12 years) Seriously, TWELVE YEARS
I bought these in Philadelphia back in High School while visiting my first internet-friend. I think they were $0.15/pair. One of the larger wings is busted, and also I have an odd number of small wings - that's great!

How many weird winged things can I make with these? And will I use them as an excuse to finally buy this papier mache squirrel? Find out next week!

Art-Craft Challenge: Week 2 Final

Finished Piece: Choke on Smoke! (6"x12")

This is modeled on the Legend of Zelda sprite for the bomb (with graffiti around it further insulting the smoke-intolerant Dodongo, Level 2 Boss). I've been following with interest in recent years the stories of people appropriating videogame images into their public art, such as the Space Invader graffiti, and the Question Mark Blocks.

Working with that as inspiration, I thought I'd give this more of a graffiti feel to it (especially because the bright colors from old videogames feel attention-grabbing to me, like spray-paint). And that lets me get away with being less meticulous! Yay!


Keyboard Keys in Pickle Jar - getting clean

I am terrible at three-dimensional work, so I thought about ways to de-construct the keyboard in order to make it work for my two-dimensional planning. I decided to go with a mosaic so I got out my screwdriver to take this thing apart. Taking apart keyboards is a gross project - this is a pic of the inside of the keyboard. Needless to say, I did a very careful job of cleaning the keys.

Since I'm a big videogame nerd, I thought going with some sprites would be a good idea. With help from sites like Sprite Stitch I discovered that holy crap, most character sprites (like Ness or Luigi) take a LOT of "pixels" and I only had about 150 of the same sized pieces. I decided to stick with one of my favorites (Zelda) and one of my favorite items (bomb). I made my own mosaic pattern in Illustrator since I couldn't get the stupid Pixelate filter to deliver in Photoshop.


Painted Keys

Once the keys were dry, I laid them out in the correct bomb configuration, and found a canvas that they would fit on. I found some collage paper that looks like an old painted wall. I painted the keys (made sure I re-counted how many of each color I need) and while they were drying, I attached the paper to the canvas.

I started sketching some other "graffiti" ideas to put on the piece, I didn't just want to put "Dodongo Dislike Smoke", I thought that was too easy. I was thinking more along the lines of an angry anti-Dodongo Hyrulian, graffiti-ing their town. So I came up with the phrase "Choke on smoke" and an insulting sketch of Dodongo. Now every time I look at it, I think of Hyrulian political graffiti.



Well, I better find old stuff to make things, quick! This week's already started!

Also, for those who asked previously, I did put last week's "There's a Girl in the Garden" in my Etsy shop.

Art-Craft Challenge: Week 2 Materials

Dell Keyboard (had 8 years)
I actually have three keyboards I've been saving to use in craft projects, but I've had them all for many years.

Since the keyboard consists of several parts (keys, interior stuffs, casing) it's all the materials I'll use for this challenge.

I have never found any really cool projects using keyboard keys (well, except this viper) so I'm going to see if I can improve upon this.


Each week, I'll select 2-3 items I've had 5+ years and use them in a project. And I'm going to document it online in order to trick myself into thinking that the nameless internet hordes care, and I must appease them.

Art-Craft Challenge: Week 1 Final

There's a Girl in the Garden

Here's the final piece I created using the materials. I liked the phrase "There's a girl in the garden" so I went with that as a theme (it's from "Shawn of the Dead", but this isn't a zombie).

I had to work around covering up too much of the background paper, because I like it too much. Once I had the girl in the corner, I realized that she needed to be looking at something, so I made her some bird friends, who she is helping reunite.


I checked out this great book from the library about collage art that mentioned the technique of transferring inkjet images (The Art of Personal Imagery by Corey Moortgat).

The left two images are using the transfer technique (which is just essentially printing out the image, spraying it with water, and then pressing it to rag paper). They both have some highlighting done with watercolor pencils. (The robot is just drawn with watercolor pencils and watercolors).


Placement: At some point during the process, I started thinking of the phrase "There's a girl in the garden" (which is a line from "Shawn of the Dead").

I didn't really want to make it a zombie girl, so I just went with the phrase and did some different interpretations. Here are four versions of the piece that I did by creating different images and layering them. Almost all of them are inkjet image transfers, except for the bottom left, which is colored pencils and watercolor.

I ended up going with the bottom left one, since the others all blocked a lot of the cool background.

Art-Craft Challenge: Week 1 Materials

As I was cleaning out my studio, I realized I am a serious horder of goodies. I have things that I have saved upwards of 12 years because "I'm sure one day I'll need it in a project". Well, dangit, carpe diem! I'll make today that day!

Each week, I'll select 2-3 items I've had 5+ years and use them in a project. And I'm going to document it online in order to trick myself into thinking that the nameless internet hordes care, and I must appease them. Without further ado, Art/Craft Challenge Week One!


Materials (Age*)
Blue Handprinted paper (8 years):
I bought a ton of paper while I was in Italy, and this is one of the several sheets that I hand-carried all the way back in a tube.

Blue Frame (10 years):
I bought this at the huge thrift store in Ocean Springs, MS that I used to frequent. Man, I miss the thrift stores down in the Deep South (tm) - they're the size of a SuperTarget/Wal-Mart/BJ's, and all the good stuff isn't entirely picked over.

* "Age" refers to how long I've had it, and is not necessarily a reflection of the actual time in existence.