Even More Critters

I've been knitting and sewing up a storm the last couple days, and so have another batch of critters to put up at the Etsy store. They include:

This guy, in a lovely soft raspberry mohair, that, though it's synthetic is, seriously, kitteny soft:



Another one of the striped cats, this time in an op-artish bright red and bright turquoise stripe:



And another of the little Satan-guys:



Also, these are toys twelve, thirteen, and fourteen of the One Hundred Toys Project. That's almost a sixth of the way there!

Knitty Kitties

A sneak peek at about half the batch of new knitty kitties, to be put up for sale in my soon-to-be Etsy shoppe. (Yes, with two P's and an E. We're highfalutin', don'tcha know).

Also, toys number seven through eleven of the One Hundred Toys Project.

More Art Journal Pages

I've acquired a bit of a backlog on these; after not doing any for a while I sat down the other night and did like six of them. Several are continuing Leah's April theme of color. The third one is bits of color cut out from magazines and arranged in chromatic order. I don't remember now where I got the idea, though I know I read it on someone or other's blog. Not Leah's, as far as I can tell. Whoever came up with the idea, thanks!

Then there's this one, in cobalt blue and iridescent copper, with a washed-out printout of the art in the last post, which I had been using to attempt to make some kind of transfer print with, as I'd had another print out accidentally get wet and end up sticking to another piece of paper and transferring the color over quite nicely. My first attempt with watercolor paper was too blurry and I think it was too wet; but I shall see if I can't figure it out. The texture of the cobalt and copper is really quite astonishing, though you can't really tell:

And this one, which started on another page with blocks of color laid down in oil pastels; but it was sticky so I put down a bunch of acrylic over it in a labyrinth pattern and ended up covering it with several layers of gloss acrylic gel, mostly because I had a new jar of the stuff. When I opened it up a couple days later the entire top layer peeled off; so I stuck that down upside-down onto another page.

And then there's this one, a vision board to get me working on the herb garden I want to put in in the back:

I do apologize for the quality of the photos. It would appear photography is not my strong suit. They were too large to just scan in.

Creative Every Day Update

I'll tell you whut, it is waaaay easier to make little dresses for the Sims than it is to:

Find the right combination of fabrics
Draft the pattern
Cut it out and
Sew it up
Embroider the Hel out of it
Try it on and
Start cussing because it doesn't fit, I've put on weight, it doesn't look good on me anyhow, it's running headlong into body image issues, and where would I wear it anyway? &c., &c.

Never mind finding all the proper accessories and jewelry that are made out of gold or something that would cost a pretty penny. Nope, much easier to just make a 512 by 512 pixel texture map.

So, here are a couple of wee Viking women:

Art Journal Pages

A couple more art journal pages for Creative Every Day; April's theme is color.

Coincidentally enough I did that 'Blue' page in March, before the theme was announced; guess I'm just ahead of the curve. Or psychic, or something. It's a collage of blue things cut out of magazines with some painting over the top. The second one is a 'quilt' made of origami papers cut up and pasted together. I apologize that the photos are not as good as I would like; the lighting wasn't that great and I'm afraid they are a little blurry.

Kicking and Screaming

Some time ago I followed somebody's link from somewhere around here to last summer's Soul Journaling prompts at Caspiana.

Now, normally art journaling is not my Thing; and I don't quite know what to make of an art style that incorporates collage and texture and layers of gesso purposely obscuring things, or God forbid, that uses pages ripped out of old books (this is in my mind high sacrilege); I am an old-fashioned sort, I guess, and it just doesn't make sense to me. I am naturally hopelessly meticulous and precise when it comes to my art, though it should be mentioned that I've actually loosened up considerably over the years. (!) All my watercolor paper must be hot pressed. I don't even like using canvas because I can't control the fact that it has a visible weave. (Not to mention that the damned stuff moves away from the brush when you apply the paint. Arggghhh!)

But when I went to a local odd-lot store a few weeks ago, I found myself at the register clutching a twelve by twelve photo album with thick brown pages (I suppose it didn't hurt that it was only $3.99). And so, though it is deeply uncharacteristic of me, I started in on the journal prompts. I suspect, uncharacteristic though it is, it is very very good for me to do something fast and loose like this. And it has been more fun that I would have thought. At first I was just doing them to be doing something, and had to tell myself that the faster I did it the sooner it would be over. Ah, we fight change so, don't we?

Anyway, here are some of them:

This one (above) gave a list of twenty-four things to cut out of a magazine, then arrange in a grid. I added the li'l Athena. She needed to be there. Oh and the sequins too.

This one uses various kinds of tape, which was weird and really not anything I thought I would like; but this medical tape I had did this odd thing when combined with a Sharpie (another thing I would never, ever consider using in a piece of Art, good God no!); though you can't really tell here it has a lot of metallic gold paint in it. It came out surprisingly Klimtish.

This one is a little house pocket with paper dolls to represent my 'family.' I collaged it together with some paper I'd done ink blots on in a fit of Rorschachian playfulness. So that's my house, sort of. Left to right it's my guardian angel, me in an uncommonly slimming olive green dress, then Maude and Sir Isaac Mewton. The cats are wicked funny, don't you think?

This was the next prompt from the Caspiana site, which involved a list of things to do (like 'use pencil,' 'throw a wash of color over,' 'fill the page with adjectives,' &c) which were done in random order; while I like the color, which is more of that metallic gold paint with shades of red and purple washed over it, I don't know what to make of it as it's a bit too abstract for my brain. I don't know how to judge when something like this is finished, you know?

Then this one, which I willingly did all on my own, and which is not from one of the prompts. It's a collage with some painting and some writing (if you look closely you may be able to make out that I spelled 'witch' wrong the first time!) I don't know what it means, though I like it, especially the view of Glastonbury Tor through the lintels of Stonehenge.

ETA: Oh, I had forgotten. The above collage was done after I read the latest post over at Leah's, where she talks about Dream or Vision Boards, which led me to Christine Kane's site where she explains how to make one. So this is what that's meant to be. I didn't know what my vision was, though, so it was the kind where you choose images that appeal or resonate, then try to figure out why. I'm still not sure what it's about. Home, Witchiness, Deity, Returning?

And lastly, this one. I don't know where that faery came from; I wasn't purposing to paint her at all. But, really, that's the best kind of art, don't you think?

Creative Every Day Update

Here's one of the little Minoan things I made for The Sims in the rush to get stuff done before I had to bring back my library books, which I did yesterday. That yesterday was a windy day in the middle of a New English February, and that the local State University campus, besides being one of the Ugliest Places on Earth, is also one of the most miserably Cold and Windy Places on Earth, as well as having the most Inconvenient Parking Lots on Earth, what with them being like a mile from any of the buildings, must be said, as well as the somewhat spoiled remark that I think the library, generally, has a crap selection in the first place. I mean, what do you mean they don't have Roman Religion and the Cult of Diana at Aricia? Anyway, here's my bit of art, a little Minoan altar with the Horns of Consecration a-top:

Earlier in the week I did two little outfits (called "skins" by those of us in the know, wink wink) as part of a challenge, or dare, put up by a Sims 1 forum I haunt:

Don't they look nice? Now, understand, I just made the texture maps for them; the "meshes" as they are called, meaning the underlying 3D structures, were made by MJ at the Simarillion, and are fantastic.

All these, by the bye, were drawn without the use of a WACOM tablet. Yes, that means with the goddamned mouse.

Labrys

And another in the Minoan series, this time based on a nearly anthropomorphic labrys or double axe on a jug from I think Knossos. I've been trying to get a move on this Minoan stuff (mostly that means the Minoan Sims stuff). The reason for giving myself a deadline, for once? My library books are due next week, and I've run out of renewals!

Knitty Stripey Kitty (Toy #6)

Another, this time a bit taller than usual. I'm really digging the stripes. Though I'm not sure if it counts as a minion, since it is, after all, a cat, and we are here to do their bidding, not the other way around.

Knitty Monster (Toy #5)

Front:

and back:

I have several more of these guys knit up that I haven't assembled yet. Minions, they are. Everyone needs minions.

Joe's New Sweater (Toy #4)

It's a Liz Claiborne, actually. I guess once he was out of the Navy he started paying attention to fashion. It looks good on him, don't you think?

Made from a $2 pair of socks; the wrong side is a toenail-catching tangle of Fair Isle strands, and quite unsuitable to put on a human pair of feet. As it was I had to take one of his hands off to get it on him.

Creative Every Day Update

I have been doing lots of creative things this last week, including some art, though I can't really show it right now as I don't have access to a scanner (my sister is "borrowing" it; "borrowing" in quotes since, after all, it is hers).

Those inertial blocks I started got hung up for a time, stymied by the ridiculous fact that I didn't actually have any newspapers for papier-mache; that has been fixed, courtesy of a stack of free car-advertisement papers swiped from the local grocery store.

I have been keeping track, quite faithfully, and I have to say keeping a Creativity Log has been one of the most phenomenally helpful things ever, for it is making me confront, and see, all the myriad creative things I do.

One of the things I did this week was play around a bit with intuitive drawing, though I'm not sure I like the results.

The main piece I did, though, was something I'm quite pleased with, though I feel sort of vaguely guilty about it too, which is ridiculous. After picking Al-Uzza for Goddess of the Week a couple of weeks ago, and realizing just how dissatisfied I was with the original art, I succumbed to temptation, and did another version. This is something I've been trying to avoid, because I most decidedly suffer from the Tolkienesque affliction of never being able to leave well enough alone, as far as my creations go. If I let myself, I know I would be forever going back into things and reworking and rethinking them; so, for the sake of being able to call something "done" and "finished" I have had to train myself to be quite ruthless about Letting Things Be.

But it was really nice, and in doing it I realized that, even though the rest of the Goddess Oracle Deck cards are a good ten years old now, I could still find plenty to explore within that format and that premise and that artistic style; and they're quick to make, too, unlike most of my other work, and the instant gratification aspect of it is a very good thing. So I'm conflicted. You know.

Mostly what I've been doing this past week, though, is working on getting a Sims 1 site together. I have surprised myself by being consistent at it; this last year I've been feeling so rootless and in-between with Things Artistic that I have had to resort to telling myself to just do something for half an hour, after which I can go do something else if I want to. But I remembered something I learned in college about using my time.

Some semesters, because of the schedule, I would end up having these little blocks of time, like an hour and a half, between classes. Time enough to go home and hang out, but not, I thought, time enough to actually get anything done. Which turned out to be not at all true, and once I started using those bits of time I found I got far more done than I ever would have thought, as it spilled out into the rest of my time. So, I'm relearning how to be productive, I guess. Perhaps I can smell spring on its way.

Anyway, here are a couple more examples of the little Sims dresses I've been making:

It occurred to me last night that, though I chose to make One Hundred Toys, I am in fact participating quite literally in the One Hundred Dresses Project too, with all the little virtual dresses I've been doing. Interesting.

Scarf and Hat Set (Toy #3)

Let me just say, Maude is a damned patient cat:

And, of course, the matching hat:

It's a miracle, obviously, that I managed to take that second photo in the .7 second window I had, and it's a little underexposed; but, still, they are quite fetching on her, don't you think?

It's made from that pokeberry and indigo smallish batch of yarn I tie-dyed back in November; the scarf is in seed-stitch, and the hat is my somewhat botched first attempt at decreasing stitches. She sat on my lap or next to me the whole time I knit it, while pointedly and generously ignoring my evil chuckling. She really is a bigger person than I.

Though, she may still opt to kill me in my sleep, you never know.

There Was Something Missing...

The result of a three-in-the-morning inspiration, aided and abetted no doubt by various prescription meds. I simply could not resist, as he was crying out for an apron. I think he wants to do the dishes, and I'm not going to stop him (hey, I'd sell my soul for less some days).

I put the pocket on his left since I figured he'd be left handed. I mean, come on--between dexter and sinister, which is Satan going to choose? And at any rate due to stuffing irregularities on the part of his Maker (myself) it does appear that his biceps are considerably beefier on that side.

Yep; still cracking me up.

Minoan Dress Designs For the Sims

What else I've been working on:

I've had a bunch of these little Minoan dresses done for a while now, but this week I started gathering them all together and organizing and designing some pages for a (maybe) Sims 1 site of my own. (We'll see, and I'm not promising anything just yet.) I don't know if these quite count as "toys," though they are of course for a game. Aren't they spiff? The first is after a painting from Thera and is true to the original colors; the second after a terracotta votive dress painted with a design of saffron crocuses from Knossos, and the last is modelled on the famous faience Snake Goddess, also from Knossos (with blouse added; I made one without the blouse, which is more authentic, but I need to redo the thumbnail).

I've also been keeping a Creativity Log quite religiously, in which (per Leah's suggestion) I've been writing down the creative things I do each day. I'm rather surprised just how much I do, really. I'm finding it unbelievably helpful to be able to see it out in the open like that; it reminds me of and makes me acknowledge what I've done. I'm one of those people who if I can't see it, I'll forget it exists, which goes even more for works in progress.

Knitty Satan (Toy #2)

Oh my Gawd this guy totally cracks me up:

I like how the curved claws make him look vaguely pigeon-toed.

I have to admit I don't quite get the whole God vs. Devil thing. If the Devil is the opposite of God, shouldn't God be a hopelessly square utterly un-charming bore with no dress sense? Well, I guess there are reasons I'm not one of those monotheistic sorts.

Anyway, two toys down, ninety-eight to go!

Inertia

I've started another set of blocks, this time to be in papier-maché; seven of them all told, to spell the word inertia.

It's a funny thing, inertia. It can mean both being stuck, and moving. To quote Mewton's, er, sorry, Newton's First Law: an object at rest will remain at rest; an object in motion will remain in motion, unless acted upon by an outside force.

I feel I am right now stuck in the remaining at rest part of the Law; and trying to get myself to work on Something today, like these blocks, meant talking myself through it, the way a very depressed person has to carve up the day into tiny, manageable baby steps. Instead of looking at the whole project, which felt overwhelming, I told myself, Okay, now I'm just going to get the wallpaper paste out of the drawer of the art caddy. Just that, and nothing beyond that, right now. Turns out, though, I don't actually have any wallpaper paste, I just thought I did; but still, I did work on the blocks a little. And that counts.

Partially I'm sure it's the fact that it's winter, and all I want to do is hibernate; a little tricky, really, to get moving when Nature is telling me to remain at rest. But, also, it's that I have really gotten out of the habit of making things, and there is a lot of stuff to get moving, psychic, mental, and physical. So there's rather more to it than I'm assuming.

But, here are my blocks, so far:

Pardon the unphotogenic background; my drawing table does double duty as my sewing table. I hope to get that rectified soon, as I'm working on refinishing the spare room to be a proper studio space; right now my drawing table is set up in a corner of my bedroom, not the best way to go about things, if one has a choice.

Now, in the interests of showing myself (and the rest of y'all) that I have been doing plenty in the name of being creative every day, here's what I've put in my creativity log so far (I won't, probably, post in this much detail all the time; I just need to see it and make it real out in public today):

1/1/09: Danced a little to "Brain Damage Situation" by They Might Be Giants, which has a great groove; got doll's skirt attached and apron made; sketched a little; finished off the first set of Artist's Blocks; wrote a blog post.

1/2/09: Researched/wrote about Benzaiten for several hours (and let me tell you, Her history is unbelievably complicated!); and, oh, I'm gritting my teeth and making myself include this, I played The Sims for a while. Mostly I made the little houses, this lovely terraced neighborhood of Minoan houses with nice little gardens, &c. which, yes, technically, is creating something. (I will learn not to judge this one, dammit!)

1/3/09: Wrote Goddess of the Week entry; played more Sims and worked on the little houses some more (if interior decorating in reality is creative, so is this--yes, yes, I'm trying very hard to convince myself!); sketched some toy ideas.

1/4/09: Started more blocks; photographed doll; made a couple Minoan heads (these little bitmaps in Photoshop) for The Sims. (All right, Brain, listen up: this month's theme is Play; combine that with my word for the year, Permission, and it means I have permission to play. You know, like a game. Like, oh I don't know, maybe, just perhaps, The Sims! Oh, Brain, when will you learn?)

Here's that photo of the doll I've been working on. Right now she looks a little Amish (by which I mean the no face part; that's one way they reconcile the "no graven images" thing in the Bible). I have a vague idea what I want to do with her face and hair, but haven't liked any of the sketches I've done so far, so I've put her aside for now while I mull.

Artist's Blocks (Toy #1)

Well, here they are, the first batch of toys for my One Hundred Toys Project, as well as my Creative Every Day entry (not that I made all of these in one day!)

Participating in Art Every Day Month back in November I realized just how stuck and how blocked I was feeling; and, since if you can't think of anything to make, you can always make something about how you can't think of anything to make, I made:

A set of Artist's Blocks. (Har, har har.)

Each one has embroidered on it the letters F, E, A, and R, since that seemed to be the thing that was most contributing to my feeling stuck.

Or one might rearrange them to show off the other sides:

They can also be stacked, sort of (they are a little roly-poly):

Or, would you look at that! One might even spell other words with them:

Speaking of spell, in just playing with them I've found there are an awful lot of other, useful words hidden within those four letters: for example fae, ear, far, are, and rarr!

Art is magic.

Creative Every Day Challenge 2009

Well, I've decided to join in on this one, too, over at Leah's Creative Every Day blog. This one is a little looser than the Art Every Day Month challenge which I participated in during November, with creativity being defined pretty broadly. I am, however, going to attempt to be fairly literal about it (though I will of course sooner or later succumb to the inevitable head cold or bout of flu) and try to make something every day.

I suspect at times I will be scrounging for something to call "creative;" which, it occurs to me, might actually be a good thing. I discount so much of what I do, and if I have to start acknowledging the odd doodle, or sewing project, or Sims' little dresses, or God forbid, writing, as creative, as Art, I may just one of these days get it through my fool head that it is all good, all worthwhile, and all has meaning.

I've been working on the One Hundred Toys Project again since the holidays have slowed down a bit, though I still don't have anything finished enough to post just yet. The toys will be a big part of being Creative Every Day, I'm sure.

I plan to post about this (with pictures, hopefully) a couple times a week rather than every single day (because that is just too much of a pain in the a*s); so stay tuned. Anyone who'd like to join in, you can sign up at Leah's blog.