Taking in the view ....

Nothing like a long weekend to spend a little time learning to paint!  Hope you had a chance to get out and enjoy the view!

Going 3D!

Well tonight I didn't have a chance to draw because I was busy at a 3 hour course of 'Fun with fondant' at Angela Oakleaf Cakes.

On the way over to the class, my husband said that he was going to make a cake with a boat on it. Of course once we got there and the teacher started to demo how to do things with fondant, he stated that there was no way that he was going to make a boat. ... But once you put the idea of a boat on a cake out there, well, you just can't go back on something like .... someone needed to make a boat. And so I did.

I liked the idea of making three-dimensional sculpture on the cake. The boat was made by rolling out a square piece of fondant and stamping it with a wood mold. I then pulled the corners up together, piercing them and cutting off the bottom corners of the fold to create the diagonal edge. The frog was made by making a two-ball snowman and then giving him ribbon legs. I then rolled out a few eyes and used black edible ink to make the eyeballs.

All in all I was pleased with the results. It was indeed FUN with fondant!

Back to Basics ....

The other night I had a dinner party, and my friends were asking what my next hobby was going to be.  I said 'I think I'd like to take digital painting ... I don't know if that's an actual course, but I'd like to take it.'  And that got me to thinking ... I really don't know anything about how to use the tools I have, or how to go about painting.  I need to get back to basics.

And that's when I found this new set of tutorials (link).  This guy is great!  He really dumbs it down for the true beginner.  And he gives you exercises to work on all of the fundamentals.  So I have started working my way through his curriculum.  Of course, I can only draw so many spoons before I get bored, so tonight I also took a pass at this (which I realize isn't actually painting, but rather drawing .... but frankly I just wanted to make something, .... well, something other than spoons).

Drawing tutorial link found here - link.

And of course as I was thinking about getting back to basics, I started thinking ... isn't there a song called 'Back to Basics' from Dick Tracy?  .... There isn't.  It's called Back in Business, which led me to here (link).  And then since I had strayed that far, then I started to think well what else starts with "back" which generated some of the following:

Back to the Future - link
Baby Got Back - link
Back to the Country - link
Back Street Boys - link

... and then it just started to degenerate after that ..... (kind of like the Back Street Boys ... ouch!)

Enjoy!

Lazy Sunday ...

Not much to say today ... it's been a nice lazy Sunday hanging out inside, watching tv, and doing some drawing.  Here's today's attempt ...

And here is the tutorial link - Link

Here's hoping you too have a fun day of relaxation.

And Flash Gordon was there in silver underwear ....

Today was the inaugural ride of the spring season on my scooter.  Yes, I said it ... my scooter.

You see I have a 40 minute walk to work every day... a walk which is sufficiently short enough to walk every day, but sufficiently long enough to think about how inefficient walking is - especially in a paved world.  I have thought about riding my bike, but my schedule is too unpredictable and I won't bike home in the dark, so that is not an option.  I tried roller-blading, but there is a no-wheels park in the middle of my walk and it was a hassle to blade around the whole thing. And so I decided that I should take up skateboarding..... but after many pleas from my family and friends not to take up skateboarding for fear of killing myself, I finally went out and bought this... the Razor A5 Lux Kick Scooter.  And yes ... it is awesome.

This baby cuts down my walk to work by almost half. And frankly, if you judge me for riding a scooter, then I probably didn't want to be your friend in the first place.

While cruising on my lovely scooter I was then thinking about what I might draw tonight.  Feeling the exhilaration of passing pedestrians by at lighting speed, I of course thought of none other than Flash Gordon. I also proceeded to sing 'Double Feature Picture Show" from Rocky Horror (which has a line about Flash Gordon in it) for most of the ride home.

Unfortunately, this pic is not quite as good as yesterday's.  I took two different stabs at it, and then decided that maybe I should do the brushes and shading tutorials first (which I will save for a later night ...).

Again, here is tonight's tutorial link - tutorial link.

A black cat crosses your path ....

I've been following this graphics artist guy on-line for quite some time.  Originally, his web-site was called www.idrawgirls.com, but it seems that at some point in time, it appears that he realized he might not be drawing in the right audience (pun intended), and he rebranded the site theartclasses.com.  

What I like about his tutorials are a few things:

- his tutorials are often short

- he is to the point with no cheesy background music

- he gives you drawing tips along the way

- it's actually about drawing, not about using photoshop, so he doesn't seem to use a lot of complicated layers or filters to achieve effects; he actually creates them.

I tried to start out with an easy one.....some of his paintings these days are getting rather complex.  Here's my rendition of his rendition of BlackCat from the Marvel comics.  I used layers only for the purpose of being able to go back and fix things if I really screwed up, and I like to use inverted layers for painting (i.e. Adjustments > Solid Colors, following by CTRL-I)

If you too are interested in the tutorial, you can find it here - tutorial link

I am hoping that placing a black cat in my path has not doomed me for a week of bad luck.... but since my husband is currently sick with a cold; despite my best efforts today to Clorox my entire apartment, it will likely be a best case scenario if I don't get sick.  Good times!  And in case you are a 'cats on the internet fanatic', well this one's for you (not my cat - just a particularly cute cat).

Manhattan or Lime Rickey?

Inspired by my bartending course today, I opted to do the following drawing tutorial as an homage to the under-valued garnish.

Tutorial link

I've got my eyes on you ....

So I am finally trying to teach myself how to use my Bamboo stylus and photoshop that I bought almost two years ago now. And while I have picked it up with the goal of working on my drawing, I have quickly come to realize that drawing in photoshop is really all about painting. I did my first successful tutorial today. Here's the result of my training.


 


I learnt how to do this following the attached tutorial. It wasn't terribly easy to follow and there is terrible music associated with it, but I think it came out relatively successful!

Tutorial link

Next up I suppose I should try for a full face!

The Sixth biggest snowstorm in Boston

Of course it hasn't snowed in Boston for the last two years and sure enough on the weekend that I plan to go to New York, it snows. Yes, in case you have not yet heard, it snowed in Boston today. Now apparently it's not quite as good a snowstorm as the one in the 1970s, but it didn't stop people from cross-country skiing down the street.

We of course are part of the unlucky lot that has to park on the street. Yes this was our car today.

This is the first time that I've actually crawled on top of my car in order to shovel it off. And after a mere 1 1/2 hours we were able to retrieve our car.

What was even more mind-boggling about the snowstorm was that they actually had a street ban. Yes you couldn't actually drive your car. If you did, you could get thrown in prison for up to one year. And so as you could imagine the streets were relatively free, and everybody was walking down the middle of the street. Which is kind of creepy because it kind of looked like there had been a zombie apocalypse. And of course everything was closed, except the pubs, the pubs were full… Very full!

A year ago today ....

After having lovingly ignored my blog for the better part of a year, I randomly decided to look at it today. And sure enough, it was exactly one year today that I last wrote on the blog. Looking back and feeling somewhat sentimental about it, I felt a need to post. Last year, I was busy eating and reflecting on crackers ... this year, instead, I spent my night doing this....

Okay, so clearly this is not me. First off, I don't live in a giant white box, so this photo couldn't possibly have been of me. Secondly, this person is maintaining an upright position for arguably long enough not to take a blurry photo. Nonetheless, I am working to acheive this. Yes, my long time yearning to do a handstand has recently been rekindled. And with only a few practices under my belt I do feel like I am seeing good improvement in my abilities to not completely topple over, or throw myself helplessly against the wall. Maybe one day soon I will be able to post a video of a triumphant 5-sec handstand, although no promises at this point. But taking a step back, I am hoping that starting 2013 with inverted-dynamic postures rather than a cracker box in my hand is a positive signal for an exciting year ahead .... (and of course, one with better abs!)