WIP…Thursday?

Yeah, I totally forgot to get my WIP Wednesday post ready yesterday. I generally don’t write WW posts ahead of time as I am usually working on said projects and I like to have the most recent pics. So usually I’ll snap pics in the morning and then write/publish the post during naptime. Well….that just didn’t happen yesterday! I remembered while cooking dinner and said, well, I guess it’ll be tomorrow’s post! On to the art and projects!

The Princess Celestia plush is finished!! This was a serious labor of love. But I did learn a lot along the way, and my stitching is getting so much more even, and faster too! In terms of stuffing, nothing got too warped which I was a bit worried about. There’s a slightly awkward part up by her wing, but that’s about it. The only thing I did learn is stuff the legs before you sew them completely shut! Normally to stuff a felt plushie I’ll sew all around the edges leaving myself a hole at the top to jam in some stuffing using a combo of my fingers and a wooden dowel. However, the tiny pony legs just weren’t having it, even trying to smash it in with a dowel. So for Princess Luna, I’ll add stuffing to the legs as I go, and then sew them shut.

Just a quick side view to see how thick the plushie is. It’s about 1.5″-2″ total.

Princess Luna is coming right along! I’m really excited about her – but that’s also because I love Luna! Anywho, as you can see by the pins I’m in the process of sewing the body and tail to the main hair piece. Then I have to put the back hair pieces to the back body piece, and finally sew and stuff the whole thing together.

This is my first 2D felt project!  A (not so) little Flareon ornament for my best friend! She’s about 5″ from ear to tail, which is a little big for an ornament, but too bad. Pokemon has always held a special place in m heart – I met my best friend of sixteen years because of Pokemon! I had just gotten into it (both the video game and card game) and she was the go-to girl for Pokemon card trades. We met about a trade, and have been BFF’s ever since.

Another gift for my BFF – a Superfruit pillow! Superfruit is the YouTube channel of Scott and Mitch from Pentatonix. Every Tuesday they release a vid, which is generally hilarious. We love them, and since my best bud just moved into her first apartment in September, I felt a Superfruit throw pillow was a necessity. 😀 I sewed the pillowcase (I already had the small pillow kicking around) and as you can see, I haven’t finished the top of it yet. Originally I was going to sew on the 2D guys, but I think I’m just going to stick with hot glue. I used hot glue a lot for these guys as it suited the original illustration more than stitching, and I think it will work great to attach it to a pillow. Also a quick rant about Scott (blondie on the left)’s eyes: in the original image they are all blue, which I did and it looked creepy. So I made them black and now they look creepier! So I’ll be painting them back to blue. Le sigh.

Lastly, I have finally started this oil painting for my hubs! It’s of Aurelia, a Magic the Gathering character. All I’ve done so far is lay in the background colors, but I feel better knowing it’s started at least. Being a pretty darn slow painter I am quite nervous about the fact that I have TWO oil paintings to finish in time for Christmas (plus they need about 9 days drying time, if not more). It’s going to be a scramble, but I actually work really well under pressure so I can do it!

WIP Wednesday

I’m about 90% done this bookmark, which will be a Christmas gift for a friend. It’s been so much fun to paint, and I’m loving learning more about using watercolors. I haven’t decided if I’m going to paint a background color or not. The Magic card has an ochre yellow background, but I don’t really like it. So, to leave it white, or pick another color? Thoughts?

I sketched out two more bookmarks to paint just for fun! Sorry they’re so hard to see; I tend to sketch REALLY lightly when I’m going to be painting, so I had to fiddle with the levels in Lightroom just to see this much! On the left, a happy little dancing Groot, because who doesn’t love dancing Groot, and on the right a Moriarty bookmark. He is my absolute favorite part of Sherlock, so he definitely needed a bookmark.

This is the very very beginning stages of a commission I just received over the weekend! So this is a little peek into my process – my first step is to do a really rough outline sketch to place everything in for proportion and size. Next up I’ll start revising and adding in detail, then move on to shading.

I’ve had Doctor Who, especially Ten, on my mind lately, so I sketched this up to paint last night just for fun. Very small, the whole paper is 6″ x 8″, but I like painting small.

I sketched this up last night too, after my daughter woke up in the night (definitely based on her). I’m quite pleased with it as it’s 100% out of my head with no reference. I still get nervous drawing stuff that way! But I like how this turned out. It’s very rough, and I can’t decide if I want to revise it to paint, or just leave as a sketch for now. I really need to save my pennies to get a set of Copic markers as I think they would be perfect for it!

This project has taken up most of my crafting time this week. I’ve been working on stitching some plushes as Christmas gifts, and these Doctors are my first attempt! Ten was the the first one I ever made, and though he has some flaws I love him. My stitching is already neater for Eleven – he just needs to be stuffed, sewn shut, and have his details added! These were purchased patterns, but I’m working on making my own patterns for other characters, and animal plushes too.

I actually have a few more drawings and things started, but they are gifts for people so I’m keeping them under wraps. After Christmas they’ll be a giant art/craft dump post with them.

What are you making lately?

WIP Wednesday

Before I get into the art stuffs, I’m going to apologize upfront for the horrendous photos. I had a total brain fart last night, and realized not only had I not prepped this post yet, I hadn’t even photographed my WIPs. And I’m gone from the house all day today, meaning no time to do it this morning. Which therefore meant taking art photos in my horrible bedroom light (aka fluorescent, hospital room style lights. Blech) last night. Some editing helped, but not that much. Pardon!

My little asked me last week for some new art in her room. Yesterday, I finally remembered this conversation, and asked her what she wanted. Unsurprisingly, she asked for some My Little Pony stuff, specifically Princess Luna and Princess Celestia (her two faves). I whipped these up during nap time for her. Happy three year old.

Sharing some stuff from my small sketchbook (5×7″) today. A quick life sketch while my daughter was painting from a couple weeks ago. She’s such a serious painter, which is handy for me – she sits so still I can get a quick sketch in.

This was a five minute sketch I did yesterday while listening to Jane Lui. I love the music she makes – so unique. Anywho, since I had her on the brain, I decided to do a quick sketch. The likeness is only meh, but for five minutes I’ll take it.

Started another MTG bookmark! Though this one isn’t for my hubs; it’s actually a Christmas present for a friend. I’m feeling 50% super accomplished for starting Christmas presents in August, and 50% yucky with myself. However, if I don’t start now, I’ll never have time to get everything done! Doing so much art as gifts this year.

And lastly, still making bits of progress on this piece. I feel like this is my backup piece, so when I can’t figure out what I want to work on, I’ll add more to this. It still has so much work that it needs, but it’s slowly coming along.

What projects are you working on lately?

WIP Wednesday

Welcome to my first ever WIP Wednesday! This is another step for me in breaking out of my super shy shell (yay alliteration!) that I am stuck in when it comes to my artwork. I have no problem sharing my finished portraits, but sketches, doodles, personal artwork – the idea of showing that to the masses freak me out. But, it’s time to do it! I’ve been sharing WIPs and things on Instagram to break me in, but now every other Wednesday I’ll be sharing my current art projects here!

First up isn’t actually a WIP (boy, I’m off to a great start). It is, however, the piece I drew for the winner of my blog giveaway at the end of June! So much fun to draw – made me happy just looking at those happy faces!

This piece I’ve had started for at least a month, but haven’t finished it yet…for no apparent reason! I tend to hop from project to project when I don’t have a commission, and sometimes things just end up sitting around for awhile. This is one of the first pieces I doodled without a reference for it, and I’m liking it a lot! Still figuring out watercolors, but I’m having fun with it.

Next up is a bookmark for my hubs (who rarely reads my blog, so I’m hoping he won’t otherwise I’ve ruined the surprise). The character, Kiora, is from Magic the Gathering and I just love her color scheme. Having lots of fun layering in her colors.

This is a sketch I whipped up on Sunday after seeing Guardians of the Galaxy. Wheee fanart! Hoping to turn this into a watercolor. As you can see, I definitely struggle with sketching in too many details when I’m planning on doing a painting. This sketch took about 15 minutes and I had to constantly stop myself from sketching in a whole lot more. But, it’s all a process.

And lastly, another non-WIP! I made these Sailor Moon bookmarks a couple weeks ago, and want to have a giveaway for them! Right now I’m stuck on two things: how to laminate them, and then whether or not to have the giveaway on my blog or on Instagram. Normally when I laminate I just use packing tape, but these are wider than the tape, and I’m not wild about having a tape seam on them. However, I really don’t want to spend any money on another method. Thoughts?

The only other big project right now is that I’m completely revamping my art area in our master bedroom. I’ve taken everything off my desk (and disassembled part of the desk!), I’m moving shelves around – it’s quite the task. Most of my art supplies are currently in piles around the room, but it’s coming along!

Do you draw/sketch/doodle/make any form of art? What’s your favorite medium?

Life In Photos #18

This is a pretty quiet week in photos! But, I spent the majority of this week sick so there was much less picture snapping and much more nap taking. Luckily, I started feeling better on Friday and now am pretty close to 100% again!

We practice sorting geek style in this household! The hubs gives our little all his valueless Magic the Gathering cards and she has quite the collection at this point. We love to dump them out and practice sorting them into piles by not only color, but different background and edging patterns as well. Or she’ll pick the subject (usually, animals) and we sort them out. She loves it!

Oh, Eli and his banana. My kitty Eli has always had a weird obsession with our little’s play food. He loves to bat it around (while ignoring most actual cat toys). He is fixated on the banana, which I find hilarious because he is actually terrified of real bananas! If you set down a banana peel near him, he flattens his ears and body, and tries to slink off as sneakily as possible. It’s so strange. So I guess he must show his dominance to the evil plastic banana.

I snapped this pic of my little watching Milo and Otis one rainy afternoon and I just love it. She looks so grown up. I still call her my baby, the hubs and I both still say things like, “Who will watch the baby?” or “The baby’s sleeping”, but she is definitely not a baby anymore. Damn you parenting cliches and your absolute truth!

Hope the weekend is treating you well!
We’re off to see Guardians of the Galaxy today and I CAN’T WAIT!!!

 

December Baking: Week 1

The first week of December’s baking was for my husband’s birthday. We didn’t have a huge party, just some friends over to play games. My husband is a big Magic the Gathering enthusiast – he goes every Friday for Friday Night Magic at our local comic shop, competes in some tournaments throughout the year, and is currently studying to become an official judge!

This year he requested a carrot cake – my first time ever making one! I consider myself a good baker; I can make a mean cupcake, and frost it prettily, but I haven’t actually made a layer cake since I was in high school. Which is almost 10 years ago. . .so I was a bit intimidated.

But overall, I’m really happy with how it turned out! The cakes themselves seemed a little flatter than I was expecting, but once they were frosted it made for quite a decent sized cake. As for the decorating job. . .well, let’s just say it was made with more love than skill! The writing is legible (first time piping lettering!) so that’s a bonus!

Best of all, this cake was DELICIOUS. I got some recipe advice from friends, and had a couple people tell me that the Betty Crocker cake and frosting recipes were excellent. They were right! I’m not even a huge cream cheese frosting fan but this one was fantastic! I highly recommend it.

Click here for the recipe!

I also made a batch of Lemon Bar Brownies. Back when I was doing the farmer’s market, these were a best seller. I sold out of them every week. I think it’s the combo of fresh squeezed lemon juice and fresh lemon zest that knocks these out of the park. It gives them such a great balance of sweet and tang. And their consistency is really good – so dense and moist.

Click here for the recipe!

And finally, I baked my hubs a birthday surprise – Magic the Gathering cookies!! For those who don’t know much about MTG, these are the symbols of different types of cards in the game. My hubby loves iced sugar cookies so when I was browsing Pinterest ages ago and saw these, I immediately pinned them to make for his birthday! Go check out the original cookie post via Not Your Momma’s Cookie, which most certainly puts my cookies to shame. She has so many awesome cookies ideas; I’m sure I’ll use more in the future.

The cookies weren’t actually that hard to make, just time consuming. And let me tell you, piping on designs with icing is NOT the same as drawing with a pencil! But they came out decently (other than two bloopers that I very unfortunately forgot to take pictures of before eating) so I will definitely make these again in the future!

Click here for the sugar cookie recipe, and here for the icing recipe!

Our gaming get together was good fun as always. I sat out on the Magic playing and got some drawing done, but definitely joined in for some Acension and Lords of Waterdeep (my current favorite board game).

Phew! Week 1 of baking accomplished. . .just in time to start Week 2 of baking! Stay tuned for Vanilla Cupcakes, Chocolate Cupcakes, Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, and Dinosaur Cookies.

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