Sleeping Babe

I'm completely obsessed with cell phone photos right now. Here are a couple I played with today...





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Illo Friday - Emergency

Tada! My first Illo Friday in forever!

Emergency -- Pen & Ink Wash

When my baby cries this hard, it's an emergency, I can tell you. At least that's how he sees it!

I bought one of the famous moleskin journals recently. I wanted to make a fresh start and encourage myself to start drawing again. The quality of these journals is supposed to be just the tippy tops, so I finally plunked down the money for one, and I love it. It does ooze a little bit with quality. The warm tan tone of the paper will be something I need to get used to, it make it especially difficult to scan in accurate colors, but I do love it. I also decided to branch out just a tad with my usual style and use colored inks for my washes. Single colors, mind you. Not sure if I have it figured out yet, not to the degree that I had the B&W ones down. But it's not bad. Below is my first attempt, and above is my second.

Tree -- Pen & Ink Wash


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ACEO #32 - Fairy Boy

ACEO #32 -- "Fairy Boy - Purple" - Pen & Colored Pencil, July, 2007

Bid on this and other items on eBay.


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Freezer Paper Father's Day

It's been forever, I know, and even this post is way late in coming. I'm trying to do better keeping up with my three blogs, but it's tough these days with the little kiddo.

So here are the gifts I made for my men for Father's Day:





Matching T-shirt and Onesie. Chess-themed for my chess-loving hubster. I think they came out great. Still loving the freezer paper thing. Have to do more soon.

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Happy Valentine's!

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New Policy on Visual Space

No nudity on the front page! Ok, I think it's totally ridiculous to worry about some sketches of some nudes on websites, but I have had a couple of comments from people that they became embarrassed while looking
at my blog at work etc.. Then my teacher sister & bro-in-law both said they would get fired if they looked at any nude art online while at work. My other sister and I grilled them on this... even the Statue of David??? Yeppers! Ridiculous I say! (And it makes me wonder about visual depictions of genitalia in Bio class, are drawings allowed there? I remember there being at least cross sections done, but why would that be ok and David not? Where is the line here??)

Still, as ridiculous as it might be, I don't want people to get into trouble for looking at my blog, so.... for anything that has any nudity here (and there is only one post so far) I will not put the picture on the main page, you will have to go to the actual page for that post to view the artwork. So if you notice any postings that don't have previews on the main page, that's why. But that is as far as I will take that kind of censorship. I am not going to have any warnings in the titles, or anything like that, you go to the rest of the pages on my blog at your own risk. But the main page is safe! (Haha! The post in question was actually a piece called "Safe!" Oh the irony!

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The Fine Art of Freezer Paper Stenciling

So I came across this artform online somewhere and immediately I was filled with the urge to immediately try it out. And I did, a few months later. Basically you create a stencil out of freezer paper (like wax paper, but it only has wax/plastic coating on one side), iron it onto a piece of fabric, and paint over the stencil. This is like poor man's silk-screening, only cooler because it takes less of an investment of time, money, equipment, and even chemicals.

So here was my first effort:

I made these as Xmas prezzies for my bros-in-law and
my hubby. This is hubby sportin his. I quickly learned (after three botched shirts) that some important things to think about are how thick/runny your ink/paint is (and therefore how much bleedage), and how you can't have any floating areas of white within the black because that piece of the stencil will just fall right out. Also, one major difference between freezer paper stenciling and silk-screening (aside from the evenness of the ink) is the ability to redo an image over and over. Freezer paper is pretty much a one-shot deal. So if you want to make multiple shirts, you have to re-cut the design every time.

My next project was a tote bag for my niece. It's super-freakin sweet, it's this colorful, stylized, butterfly-covered tote that I put a huge image of her face/name on to personalize. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera handy to get a shot of the bag, but for now, here is the design I placed on top of the tote's existing pattern:
Again, there were little bits of floating white everywhere, so I ended up changing some elements quite a bit when I actually cut the stencil.

Then came this little project:


A baby-shower gift for some friends. I wanted to personalize it further with the baby's name or something but, even though they've already picked out the name, the baby still hasn't been born yet, and you never know, so I kept it generic. Still having trouble with those round edges, and getting clean lines with my xacto.

Now my pride and joy:


A friend of mine just gave birth to this cutie pie and I wanted to send them something special to celebrate. This is from a photo of the little munchkin when he was still at the hospital. As you can see, I am really starting to figure stuff out. My biggest revelation: freezer paper (with enough coaxing) can go through my printer, so I can print my design and cut through only the freezer paper. I had previously been doing freezer paper plus design sheet laid on top. This makes cutting that much easier and therefore more accurate. I am sooooooo proud of this one, I can't wait to think up another design to try out. Hubby thinks I should offer custom designs for people if they send me their photos. Maybe I will!

Let me know what you think!

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