So... I started working on a short story. Sort of. Earlier this week Sandy IMed me and we were chatting about this nanowrimo thing, national novel writing month. She said she's gonna do it and was trying to get me interested. I really had no idea what I'd write a novel about. "I like goats" was the first thing that came to my mind. Very inspirational.
However, the other night I got an idea for a short story. I guess I could make it into a poem or something, but I think it would be fun and a good brain-stretch to write something more substantial. It will hopefully turn into a short story, though it'd be cool if I could really write a novel!
The idea is in extreme-rough-draft mode at the moment. A.k.a. I know sort of how it ends, but not how it begins or any of the middle! Earlier I started brainstorming some stuff to give it a more substantial plot.
I don't wanna say more, 'cause it would give too much away!!! But the working title is "The Hounds," and it was inspired by an emotional experience I had a few nights ago.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
freelancing
Since sometime mid-September I've been working on a website for a local watercolor artist (who is--conveniently--my good friend Kate). I obtained this job by having our mutual friend Lyla (also a CS major) move to Rwanda. I'm actually quite grateful to be doing freelance (emphasis on the free) for somebody. It's a good learning experience as well as fun. Working for a friend has been interesting. On one hand it's very chill and relaxed because we know each other. On the other hand I often have to bug her to respond to my emails.
The site is coming along well despite the lag. We're still playing with the design, so what you see below is likely close to the finished appearance but not necessarily exact.
I prefer to use highly advanced tools (like MS paint) when marking-up spacing.
I've been using Chrome's developer tool feature lately (it's that thing that comes up if you right click and choose "Inspect element"), but sometimes I open something in Firefox solely to use the firebug plugin. Firebug has an awesome layout feature.
On a side note, redundancy is fun. I once found two names followed by "BFFs forever" scribbled in bathroom stall.
The site is coming along well despite the lag. We're still playing with the design, so what you see below is likely close to the finished appearance but not necessarily exact.
I prefer to use highly advanced tools (like MS paint) when marking-up spacing.
I've been using Chrome's developer tool feature lately (it's that thing that comes up if you right click and choose "Inspect element"), but sometimes I open something in Firefox solely to use the firebug plugin. Firebug has an awesome layout feature.
On a side note, redundancy is fun. I once found two names followed by "BFFs forever" scribbled in bathroom stall.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
the owl bag returns!
It's been a while since I've updated. I got a bit sick of sewing for a while there, but I've worked on the owlbag a lot in the past week. The feet have been sewed on. They're not really even, but I didn't want to attempt to sew the first one on for a third time. Sorry about the blurry picture.
I sewed the eyes on, which involved a bit of a process. Traced circles on the back of the face panel using my lactaid pill bottle. Basted down the brown cordoroy and sewed that on. Cut holes for the buttons (nonfunctional), reinforced the edges and sewed on the bottons. Padded the backs. The one on the right in the first picture is prior to padding.
I finally started working on the sides. I ran into size issues with the grommets I had being too large for the clasps. I dug up some hardware pieces I'd removed from my winter coat awhile ago (it needed fixing) which happen to be the right color.
You can see in the pictures below how I used them. I was a bit concerned about them not being able to bear much weight, but the bag isn't going to be that big, so they should be okay. The ear tuft details nicely cover up the stitches holding on the hardware.
Exciting! First bit of lining was sewed onto the ears! The second picture shows the clasp attached.
I started engineering a beak (sorry no pictures yet), but the snaps I was planning on using I fear will come off. (That's what happened in my test sample.) I've been wanting to do some more work but I need to find a solution for the front clasp before I can sew on the beak and more lining. Also I need to order more variegated thread from Janlynn so I can make the wing pockets with the same color detailing as the chest feathers.
Here's me being silly/excited.
I sewed the eyes on, which involved a bit of a process. Traced circles on the back of the face panel using my lactaid pill bottle. Basted down the brown cordoroy and sewed that on. Cut holes for the buttons (nonfunctional), reinforced the edges and sewed on the bottons. Padded the backs. The one on the right in the first picture is prior to padding.
I finally started working on the sides. I ran into size issues with the grommets I had being too large for the clasps. I dug up some hardware pieces I'd removed from my winter coat awhile ago (it needed fixing) which happen to be the right color.
You can see in the pictures below how I used them. I was a bit concerned about them not being able to bear much weight, but the bag isn't going to be that big, so they should be okay. The ear tuft details nicely cover up the stitches holding on the hardware.
Exciting! First bit of lining was sewed onto the ears! The second picture shows the clasp attached.
I started engineering a beak (sorry no pictures yet), but the snaps I was planning on using I fear will come off. (That's what happened in my test sample.) I've been wanting to do some more work but I need to find a solution for the front clasp before I can sew on the beak and more lining. Also I need to order more variegated thread from Janlynn so I can make the wing pockets with the same color detailing as the chest feathers.
Here's me being silly/excited.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
song writing, what!?!
GASP! I am posting.
I wrote this tidbit of a song years ago, but I am thinking of writing more.
(Note: the weird orchestral-y sound is the vocal representation.)
I wrote this tidbit of a song years ago, but I am thinking of writing more.
(Note: the weird orchestral-y sound is the vocal representation.)
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
openCanvas doodles
Uh, I was feeling bored and restless... so I drew random stuff in openCanvas.
One of my friends was talking about a sherbert monster, so I drew that. Fear is the suggested reaction, as can be seen from the text.
The more "realistic" drawing (of me) came out pretty well color-wise, considering I haven't colored anything in ages. The reference photo for the drawing was one of the many boredom-shots taken with my cell phone.
As for the spanish music confusion fiesta... there was some spanish rap on my youtube playlist.
The cat is gray because I had a dream about a gray cat the other night. It kept running away from me. When I finally caught it, it purred happily as I petted it.
I've had openCanvas for 8+ years now~ wow. The version I have is the last free one, I think. Either way, it's a really simple art program as you can see below.
One of my friends was talking about a sherbert monster, so I drew that. Fear is the suggested reaction, as can be seen from the text.
The more "realistic" drawing (of me) came out pretty well color-wise, considering I haven't colored anything in ages. The reference photo for the drawing was one of the many boredom-shots taken with my cell phone.
As for the spanish music confusion fiesta... there was some spanish rap on my youtube playlist.
The cat is gray because I had a dream about a gray cat the other night. It kept running away from me. When I finally caught it, it purred happily as I petted it.
I've had openCanvas for 8+ years now~ wow. The version I have is the last free one, I think. Either way, it's a really simple art program as you can see below.
Friday, April 29, 2011
frame-by-frame photo animation
I have a tendency to take lots of pictures with my (low quality) phone camera. This morning I spent some extra time in bed taking shots in progression which I've now compiled in Photoshop.
Vertical Rotation:
Horizontal Rotation:
Smile:
I had actually never used Photoshop for animation, but I assumed it was possible. My google search turned up this tutorial.
The tutorial talks about tweening (not used for the above animations), which I had no idea could be done in Photoshop. I've used it often in Flash. Tweening is short for inbetweening. In digital animation, tweening means that you provide the starting and ending frames, and the computer fills in the in-between frames. This is opposed to having to draw each frame individually. Mind you, this does not work nicely for all things. You could have a frog in your starting frame and a prince in your final frame, but whatever program you're using is going to transform that frog into a blob that then turns into the prince. No magical swirls or logical anatomical progressions. Actually that depends on the complexity of... a topic for a future post, perhaps.
Vertical Rotation:
Horizontal Rotation:
Smile:
I had actually never used Photoshop for animation, but I assumed it was possible. My google search turned up this tutorial.
The tutorial talks about tweening (not used for the above animations), which I had no idea could be done in Photoshop. I've used it often in Flash. Tweening is short for inbetweening. In digital animation, tweening means that you provide the starting and ending frames, and the computer fills in the in-between frames. This is opposed to having to draw each frame individually. Mind you, this does not work nicely for all things. You could have a frog in your starting frame and a prince in your final frame, but whatever program you're using is going to transform that frog into a blob that then turns into the prince. No magical swirls or logical anatomical progressions. Actually that depends on the complexity of... a topic for a future post, perhaps.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Illustrator: Baby Steps!
I finally got around to installing Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator is all about vector graphics (points, lines connecting those points, scalability without loss of quality, magical beautiful things). I've worked with vectors in Adobe Flash Professional. I loved that but it was never mathematical enough for me. I was hoping Illustrator would be like Flash on happy, mathematical (and legal) drugs.
I do not recall my first reaction to Illustrator, but it was far from comprehension. I decided I needed to find a tutorial. I came across this pen tool tutorial, which looked good. I learned a lot about short-cut keys from it, which turned out to be fantastic later on. However, my knowledge of actually using the pen tool, post-tutorial, can be seen reenacted in the screen shots below. All I wanted to do at first was connect lines to other lines. That should be simple, right?
In my mind I should have been able to connect any lines I wanted! Who ever heard of continuous paths, seriously? Okay, so maybe I have... [mumble mumble, CS degree, graph theory]. Also, you may notice that my two paths (those red and blue things) are conversing. I assure you this is normal. Either way, it turns out that Illustrator doesn't allow you (as far as I can tell) to make paths that branch in multiple directions. This is why Miss Blue Shape and Mr. Red Line can't be friends.
In response to Illustrator's error message in the above picture: if college (read: my HCI class) has taught me anything, it's that technology is always to blame! The idea is that if you cannot understand it, then it is poorly designed. Not reading that "huge" amount of pop up text shouldn't result in a damaged psyche, despite my sudden sense of shame that until now I didn't notice it contained useful information. Plus, "I'm a cat, I can't read."
After struggling to comprehend the pen tool for awhile and realizing ice cream should not be this hard to draw, I decided I needed to seek additional help.
I did some googlemancery* and found this tutorial claiming--in my own words--Illustrator was in fact not an evil seductress out to get my hopes up only to crush them in the end.
At some point during this new tutorial I discovered what the direct selection tool was, which may have made all my dreams come true or something similarly delicious. I tried another tutorial written by the same person, which I also liked, so I might look for a copy of his Illustrator book.
With my new found "ultimate powers" I drew a cat face and a t-shirt.
[The font used on the dino shirt is called Permanent Marker from Font Squirrel. I originally was using Rabbit On The Moon which is awesome, but it's only really free to try. Wah.]
Now that I have Illustrator skillz, I am working on a picture for a blog layout. More on that later!
P.S.: Digital artwork is definitely a craft.
*googlemancery: great word I came across in a fantastic interview about Coilhouse. I'd never heard of the magazine Coilhouse, but the interviewees struck a chord with me.
I do not recall my first reaction to Illustrator, but it was far from comprehension. I decided I needed to find a tutorial. I came across this pen tool tutorial, which looked good. I learned a lot about short-cut keys from it, which turned out to be fantastic later on. However, my knowledge of actually using the pen tool, post-tutorial, can be seen reenacted in the screen shots below. All I wanted to do at first was connect lines to other lines. That should be simple, right?
In my mind I should have been able to connect any lines I wanted! Who ever heard of continuous paths, seriously? Okay, so maybe I have... [mumble mumble, CS degree, graph theory]. Also, you may notice that my two paths (those red and blue things) are conversing. I assure you this is normal. Either way, it turns out that Illustrator doesn't allow you (as far as I can tell) to make paths that branch in multiple directions. This is why Miss Blue Shape and Mr. Red Line can't be friends.
In response to Illustrator's error message in the above picture: if college (read: my HCI class) has taught me anything, it's that technology is always to blame! The idea is that if you cannot understand it, then it is poorly designed. Not reading that "huge" amount of pop up text shouldn't result in a damaged psyche, despite my sudden sense of shame that until now I didn't notice it contained useful information. Plus, "I'm a cat, I can't read."
After struggling to comprehend the pen tool for awhile and realizing ice cream should not be this hard to draw, I decided I needed to seek additional help.
I did some googlemancery* and found this tutorial claiming--in my own words--Illustrator was in fact not an evil seductress out to get my hopes up only to crush them in the end.
At some point during this new tutorial I discovered what the direct selection tool was, which may have made all my dreams come true or something similarly delicious. I tried another tutorial written by the same person, which I also liked, so I might look for a copy of his Illustrator book.
With my new found "ultimate powers" I drew a cat face and a t-shirt.
[The font used on the dino shirt is called Permanent Marker from Font Squirrel. I originally was using Rabbit On The Moon which is awesome, but it's only really free to try. Wah.]
Now that I have Illustrator skillz, I am working on a picture for a blog layout. More on that later!
P.S.: Digital artwork is definitely a craft.
*googlemancery: great word I came across in a fantastic interview about Coilhouse. I'd never heard of the magazine Coilhouse, but the interviewees struck a chord with me.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Owl Bag Hiatus
I broke all my appropriately sized needles fixing a pair of pants, so I haven't been working on the owl bag.
If you ever feel like one butt cheek is consistently colder than the other, it's probably because the back of your pants have ripped.
Anyway, I did manage to fix the pants. Click on the various squares below if you want to see closer photos. It's not too interesting, but there it is.
Along with fixing the huge rip, I patched up another hole and reinforced the other weak spots.
While I was doing that, I came up with the idea to modify the jeans in a fun, non-functional way. I haven't gotten around to doing it yet, but here's the idea I sketched out.
I was inspired by an online flash doll with socks that looked somewhat like these heart knee socks. I had taken a screen shot of the doll, but unfortunately I can't find it. Flash dolls are kind of addictive, by the way.
I recently got some new needles. Hooray!
If you ever feel like one butt cheek is consistently colder than the other, it's probably because the back of your pants have ripped.
Anyway, I did manage to fix the pants. Click on the various squares below if you want to see closer photos. It's not too interesting, but there it is.
Along with fixing the huge rip, I patched up another hole and reinforced the other weak spots.
While I was doing that, I came up with the idea to modify the jeans in a fun, non-functional way. I haven't gotten around to doing it yet, but here's the idea I sketched out.
I was inspired by an online flash doll with socks that looked somewhat like these heart knee socks. I had taken a screen shot of the doll, but unfortunately I can't find it. Flash dolls are kind of addictive, by the way.
I recently got some new needles. Hooray!
Monday, January 31, 2011
Hello, World! + the beginning of an owlbag
The other day I thought to myself "say, I could start a blog about my crafting projects." After determining that several of the names I had in mind where already taken, I forgot about it until now.
I am currently sewing an "owlbag", as I have come to call it--not to be confused with an owlbear, though I am a fan of those.
I had the idea for this bag around three in the morning about a month ago. One of my friends has a green bag that she carries her wallet, phone, camera, etc. around in. I decided I wanted a bag for my various belongings that I tend to tote around, and so I designed an owlbag.
Here are my original sketches. The current design is almost exactly the same.
I'm not actually sure of the point at which I decided to make this bag out of old clothing, but that is what I am making it out of. Several years ago at a thrift shop I bought two baggy pairs of pants, one of brown corduroy and the other made of some sort of orange cloth. I think my intention at the time was to use them for renaissance festival costumes, but that never came to be. In addition, I am using a material from a hideous yellow shirt I bought but have never worn. I actually like the pattern, but it is best taken in small doses.
Below are the cloth sample pictures I took in order to construct a colored model in Google SketchUp.
I built a model mainly for the purpose of my own amusement, however I am pretty sure I also used it to figure out some dimensions. Here's the model, skillfully annotated in Photoshop CS5.
Anyway. It's been about a month since I began this adventure. I started December 27th. Below is what I had done by December 31st.
Taking a normal picture was obviously overrated at the time. The green and yellow cloth safety-pinned to the sides is just there to prevent fraying.
I have finally finished the chest feathers, as you can see in the picture below.
It took forever, seeing as I am hand-sewing this entire thing. I had to take two rows out at one point, due to some poor cutting decisions on my part. One of the other problems I had was getting the previous layer to lie flat as I sewed on the next layer. I had been using pins, but pins are like children. They move around no matter how many times you tell them to stay put. Well, I assume children do that. Anyway, I invented this cool technique called basting, only to later learn from my mother that I didn't invent it. I was so proud of myself at the time, that I took a picture of my "clever trick" with my cell phone.
It's getting kind of later here, so I am gonna save the rest of my content for my following entries. Here's a sneak-peek (more for my memory's benefit than anything else).
- ad-hoc measurements
- upside-down mishap
- feet
- shoebox side-project
- hardware
- realization that my fear of sewing machines needs to be overcome
- people's reactions thus far
I am currently sewing an "owlbag", as I have come to call it--not to be confused with an owlbear, though I am a fan of those.
I had the idea for this bag around three in the morning about a month ago. One of my friends has a green bag that she carries her wallet, phone, camera, etc. around in. I decided I wanted a bag for my various belongings that I tend to tote around, and so I designed an owlbag.
Here are my original sketches. The current design is almost exactly the same.
I'm not actually sure of the point at which I decided to make this bag out of old clothing, but that is what I am making it out of. Several years ago at a thrift shop I bought two baggy pairs of pants, one of brown corduroy and the other made of some sort of orange cloth. I think my intention at the time was to use them for renaissance festival costumes, but that never came to be. In addition, I am using a material from a hideous yellow shirt I bought but have never worn. I actually like the pattern, but it is best taken in small doses.
Below are the cloth sample pictures I took in order to construct a colored model in Google SketchUp.
I built a model mainly for the purpose of my own amusement, however I am pretty sure I also used it to figure out some dimensions. Here's the model, skillfully annotated in Photoshop CS5.
Anyway. It's been about a month since I began this adventure. I started December 27th. Below is what I had done by December 31st.
Taking a normal picture was obviously overrated at the time. The green and yellow cloth safety-pinned to the sides is just there to prevent fraying.
I have finally finished the chest feathers, as you can see in the picture below.
It took forever, seeing as I am hand-sewing this entire thing. I had to take two rows out at one point, due to some poor cutting decisions on my part. One of the other problems I had was getting the previous layer to lie flat as I sewed on the next layer. I had been using pins, but pins are like children. They move around no matter how many times you tell them to stay put. Well, I assume children do that. Anyway, I invented this cool technique called basting, only to later learn from my mother that I didn't invent it. I was so proud of myself at the time, that I took a picture of my "clever trick" with my cell phone.
It's getting kind of later here, so I am gonna save the rest of my content for my following entries. Here's a sneak-peek (more for my memory's benefit than anything else).
- ad-hoc measurements
- upside-down mishap
- feet
- shoebox side-project
- hardware
- realization that my fear of sewing machines needs to be overcome
- people's reactions thus far
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