watch on a chain

Working on designs for Beckyless.

Rose vase

A quick still life for practice. The texture, which at times made things difficult, comes from an old painting I did for class, then gessoed over.

High society sketches

Just some sketches of various folks, in varying degrees of fanciness and old-fashion and stylization. And an ear.

He's Batman

Those character designs were in fact for a Batman Gothic Lolita fancomic, as you now see. The redesigning was quite fun.

By the way, nothing untoward is meant by the use of the term 'Lolita,' in case anyone was wondering. It's a Japanese fashion style that consists of dressing like a Victorian doll, plus goth and punk elements.

A trio of characters

Character concepts for a fancomic project I'm developing on the side. I'm not telling who they are, though! Not yet! But maybe you can guess. ~_^

St. Jude underpainting

Underpainting in Raw Umber wash, with the first layer of the background. The Yellow Ochre looks kind of green in this photo...

Playing with film

When my brother moved out he left behind an Asahi Pentax K1000 that he had never used much. Lately I've been trying it out. I love the manual focus--my digital camera doesn't have manual focus. And macro lenses! Here a just a couple of my favorite pictures so far:

St. Jude underdrawing stages

Clock weight earrings

I made some earrings from the little weights from two antique German miniature pendulum clocks. Click on the picture to go to my shop!

second St. Jude color study

A bit warmer...

By the way, that's his own blood on the club; it's his instrument of martyrdom (in some accounts.) But I see I should have some blood on his head too, or else it's going to look like he's the killer.

Zita the Spacegirl comic book raffle

The second volume of Zita the Spacegirl is almost out and Ben Hatke is having a giveaway sweepstakes! Go to this post and comment to enter your name for the drawing.

I have read the first volume and it's really fun and creative and wondrous and cute.

Prisoner & Paper Plane doll photos

As I said, my sister and I made outfits for our Kagamine ball-jointed dolls based on their song story: Prisoner and Paper Plane. First, here are links to the original videos:
Part One:  Prisoner Part Two: Paper Plane

So we sewed the outfits and then set up and did a photoshoot following the story. The hardest part was making that miniature barbed-wire fence. Please enjoy.

St. Jude color study

Getting started on a commission.

Another doll

A while ago I talked about getting Rin and Len Kagamine ball-jointed dolls. Well, you can't have horizontal relationality without vertical relationality, so later, we also got Miku!

She's a Pullip. Now, these dolls aren't just for standing-still display. My sister and I have made outfits and done a photoshoot based on the Kagamine's song story Prisoner and Paper Plane, and it's but the first of many, hopefully! I'll post shots therefrom shortly.

Cheques

I made myself a patterned fabric business card holder, now it was time for a checkbook cover! (Especially since the plastic one the bank gave me was bent and torn and the broken edges would stab my fingers whenever I reached into my purse.)

I made it from a tutorial and pattern I got at Dixie DIY. I added the button and elastic to keep it closed.

Pretty classy for my cheques!

Sherlock in oil

Chase Young oil portrait

Using up paint after the competition, I tried a portrait of cartoon villain Chase Young, of Xiaolin Showdown.

Water-soluable pens

In Minnesota, I didn't have my markers, but I brought all the felt-tip pens that I usually use for outlining. Many of them are waterproof, but not the Stabilo ones. In the past this has annoyed me, because it means I can't use them if I'm going to go over the lines with ink washes. But now, it came in very handy. The pen tips are too fine to color areas with a smooth consistency. But with the Stabilo I could scribble in an area, then go over it with my Niji waterbrush and get a nice smooth wash. This also enabled new color mixing, and combined with watercolor, I could do all that I could with markers and more! But, it works differently on different papers. It blended most smoothly on Canson sketchbook paper, which I used with the above picture.

On computer paper, the water still spread a tone, but the original lines stayed clear. That too can be useful. Ah--all the different physical properties of substances interacting--I so love traditional art!

tablet sketches

 

We got a Wacom tablet, and I've been trying it out. I think I mentioned this before... anyway, the first set of sketches I did in MS Paint, the second in DA Muro.

white water lily

With all the rain this year, there were even more water lilies than usual. I determined to go down to the pond and get one. This wasn't an easy task, with the shoulder-tall grass and thorny raspberry plants all over the swampy ground around the pond, not to mention all the buzzing deer flies, mosquitoes, and ticks (though they didn't buzz.) On my first try, I thought I could venture a few steps into the water to reach a lily, but found that the mud near shore instantly makes you sink thigh-deep. So I had to come back and try again with a long-handled garden fork. Armed with that, I struggled for what seemed like an hour with very tough lily stems, got a boot full of water and even dropped my digital camera in the water (fortunately it still worked,) but, as you can see, I finally got one, brought it inside, and put it in a bowl.

  

Where I took many photographs of it.

Every evening it would close up, and then the next morning it would be open again. It lasted surprisingly long.

And of course, my main goal was to paint it.

Original Professor Layton characters

I had a dream about a new Professor Layton game called Professor Layton and the Ghostly Mountain. These were the characters that my mind made up for it. I love the Prof. Layton character design style! If you want to know the plot of my dream game, and see a cover image, head over to my Deviantart gallery.

Minnesota photos- mostly water

There's been alot of flooding in Minnesota this year, and as disastrous as this was in some cases, it made for interesting scenery.

The Kettle River