Friday, January 27, 2006

Late Night Limerick

Michele said, "I don't like to boast,
but the men turn as white as a ghost
when they see all the junk
I got up in my trunk
'cos, baby, I got more than most!"

rub a dub dub


...two in a tub. Today's inspiration came from the box doodle project. My little scene was made from an old binder clip box. I love using office supplies for something other than their original intent! Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

down the rabbit hole


This weeks Macroday entry; theme bathroom.

Three Naked Men

Three gestures of the human figure. I don't have anyone who would want to be a nude model, so I opened up my very very dusty copy of Virtual Figure Drawing Studio. I guess in a pinch, it'll do. I spent around 5 minutes on each.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Self Portrait #3

I would have never thought there were so many ways to create a self portrait. I'm guessing we'll discover even more as the year progresses.

So, evidently, there's this group that posts self portraits taken in reflective surfaces, but I can't remember their URL. Here's my attempt:

Its in a puddle next to the sidewalk outside the building where I work. I figure it's pretty appropriate as I'm a Cancer with Pisces rising (both water signs). Even more appropriate as the water in my charts seems to be rather murky!

Here's another shot I took right after the puddle one that I think also speaks volumes...


...ask anyone who knows me! :)


Monday, January 23, 2006

CATSUP


A quick cheesy sketch for Illustration Friday cats. I'm sure this has been done better somewhere else, but what the hell, you get the idea.

Friday, January 20, 2006

Who's HAREBRAINED idea was it anyway...

to create a visual pun?


 Posted by Picasa

You can toss more than your cookies...

So today's challenge was inspired by cameratossing. After a couple of tries to get my coordination relatively together, I think I got some nice shots of the icicle lights hanging from our mantle:



















If it weren't so late, I'd play around with other light sources, because this is kinda cool and random, but as it is, i'm going to bed.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

where...



She in there somewhere. The Inspirational Word of the Day, by the way was where. It was completely picked at random this afternoon, whereby a mildly interested coworker who has nothing to do with this project at all, other than flipping through a book and blindly pointing at a random word on the page where she stopped flipping, flipped through a paperback book about African music, landed on a random page, closed her eyes and pointed to a random word, which turned out to be where. So that was our jumping off point today.

I thought this particular drawing would be a good project where I could come up with different cartoon expressions. Unfortunately, after about 40 or so, I got really really bored, and rushed through the rest. I mean, really really bored. I would never be happy drawing those Where's Waldo books. Unless maybe midnight was not creeping up on me where I had to be up at 6:00 am. Actually, I do think it would where me down eventually, no matter how much sleep I got.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Monday, January 16, 2006

Before and After

Ok, I know this is gonna seem like a cop-out, but I've decided that this particular project falls under the culinary arts. (so since it's technically an art, it's still allowed). Here then is the before:


Now the after part:


And a close up of what's inside:


mmmm...strawberries and fresh whipped cream. I really like my Betty Crocker Bake 'n' Fill! This is actually the first time I ever used it and I was amazed at how much fun it could be. Next time I'm going to make Flaming Baked Alaska! Or maybe Banana-coco-triple-chocolate-pudding surprise! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Friday, January 13, 2006

Friday the 13th


So today we decided to use Friday the 13th as inspiration. I had no idea what I'd do with that, until lunch. I was sitting in a cafe I sit in a couple times a week, looking out the window when I saw it: A tree across the street (that I pass by at least twice every day) had eyes. I swear, I'd never seen them before today. It was so freaky. I was fascinated, grabbed an envelope and made a quick sketch. (some guy thought I was writing him a parking ticket because I was standing next to his car!)

Anyway, there's a full moon tonight (ok, tomorrow officially, but close enough) so I decided to include that as well. And tonight is another first: I actually pulled out the "Artists Kit" I bought at Tuesday Morning a year or so ago, ripped a blank canvas board out of its wrapper and said, "lets see what happens when I dip a brush in acrylic paint!"

And I'm not afraid to admit that grafxcowgirl is much more adept at rendering trees.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Self Portrait #2

(9"x10.5"; paper, glue, pocket folder)

Traditional collage techniques (i.e., paper and glue) . No photoshop/other computer work allowed (other than scanning). I didn't even color correct it...the original is much more vibrant, but I think the point comes across.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Drawing on the spastic side of my brain...

Ugh. Today we had to complete 4 (count 'em four) blind contour drawings. The contour drawings were cowgirl's idea, the number we had to draw was randomly rolled on a 6-sided virtual die. Haven't done these in a loooooong time. It was actually kind of fun, once I made myself sit down and do it.


1.

deux.

drei.

quatro.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Be it ever so humble...


Well, the weekend was dedicated to participating in Photo Friday, this week's theme being panorama. So here is the booming metropolis I call home as seen from the top of the park where the homless folk hang out when the mission is closed. Despite dealing with the elements, they really do have a nice view from here. (Actually, I work in a building that's behind the mission which is just down the block from the park.)

Here's a fun digitally altered version.

Friday, January 06, 2006

Lizzy Borden took an axe...


Postage rates are going up this weekend. To celebrate this important milestone, today's assignment was to design a stamp. Well, being the overachiever that I am, I designed this series of "tribute" stamps. You can read more about the celebrities featured in this post at about.com.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Any resemblence to real persons is strictly coincidental

I can think of only one person who's even gonna get this, much less find it amusing:

I give you the first installment of
The Adventures of Fric and Frac

In response to Ed Emberley's Fingerprint Drawing Book, today's challenge involved making something out of a fingerprint. At 11:30 pm I still couldn't think of anything to do other than making a butterfly or a ladybug, and I just couldn't have that. This is a conversation the way I know it would have gone had the two parties pictured above been in the same room at the time.

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

poor little guy...

Wow, this one was much harder than I thought, given how exhausted I am this evening. Still, our little adventure into "forced" creativity is not wearing thin just yet. Here then, is my haiku inspired by [the randomly chosen word] cheese:


the snap of a trap
and the crack of a neck
and
the cheese stands alone

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Macroday: Cheesy

Mozzarella cubes marinating in olive oil and fresh herbs.
 Posted by Picasa

Monday, January 02, 2006

One Man's Trash...


Today's assignment was to turn junk into something remarkable. I came up with a 5x5 inch hand-bound blank book made of the following materials:

pages - cut from those manila envelopes with the clasp-thingy; we were tossing a bunch of used ones at work
cover board - a box that an iron came in that i was going to throw out
inside cover paper - posters from a previous theatrical production
cover paper - cool foil wrapping paper from a very special christmas gift from a very special person
thread - purple embroidery floss leftover from many previous projects

I've never hand-sewn a book before...this was quite new and exciting! I found a great tutorial for hand-sewing multiple signature blocks at Daydreaming on Paper.

Posted by Picasa

Sunday, January 01, 2006

I like elipses...

...so here, then, is my first assignment. A self portrait for the new year...


...made entirely out of chocolate. (...and a little food coloring, with some bits of aluminium foil that got stuck to the back.)

Posted by Picasa

...and away we go!

And that's why this starts with the second sentence: I was under too much self-inflicted pressure to write the perfect clever opening sentence to my very first post. (That's just one of the things that makes me me!)

That out of the way, the whole reason we're here is because the other night my dearest dearest friend and I were discussing our desire to challenge ourselves to try to be more creative this year, so somehow we talked ourselves into a joint project in which we would respond creatively to a different challenge each day, and post the results for each other and whoever else might be interested. No pressure on either of us...Crap is completely accepted (and expected to an extent).

Before I thought better I was in over my head.

So here we are.

I hope you're having as much fun as I am.