cignohblog

pig mask

2011-03-16T10:08:00.000-07:00

i made a pig mask for one of my classes:

it's made out of a material called wonderflex, and i used a life cast of myself with clay parts added for the nose, cheeks, and ears to mold the mask. then i covered it with a leather/vinyl like fabric, and then decorated it with black sharpie and white out.

2011.02.28.tad: dress with bows

2011-02-28T23:58:00.000-08:00

i drew this dress in illustrator based on the following photo:

here is a a summary of all my tads this month:

tad has been great! looking forward to seeing everyone next year!

2011.02.27.tad: striped hoodie

2011-02-27T17:13:00.000-08:00

i need a hoodie without zippers, so i decided to make one:

i might add a kangaroo pocket and a skirt and maybe shape it a little more, but i think it will work for what i need... i used a piece of scrap fabric that i've had lying around that is a little scratchy and not that cozy, so it's more of a prototype for possible future clothing that i might make...

2011.02.26.tad: maze and circle

2011-02-26T16:47:00.000-08:00

today was my first day in a sample making and design sewing class that i'm taking. we learned how to use industrial sewing machines and worked on a maze and circle exercise:

the lines are sewn concentrically 1/4" apart. i think of it like the equivalent of doing scales on the piano, but for sewing. i have used an industrial machine before and have done the same exercises before, but still found the circle to be very challenging. it starts out ok, but when you get to the inside, any flaws in your sewing become much more apparent.

i'm excited about the class. throughout the semester, we will learn a variety of sewing techniques including seams and finishes, curves, bias, hems, hand finishing, plackets, pockets, buttonholes, collars and necklines, and zippers and assemble a notebook with examples of everything we have sewn.

2011.02.25.tad: illustrator self-portrait

2011-02-25T23:58:00.000-08:00

following the themes of making avatars and learning illustrator, i drew a self-portrait illustrator based on a photograph:

i traced over the photograph and made adjustments where i thought it made sense to.

2011.02.24.tad: basic dress, revisited

2011-02-24T22:13:00.000-08:00

today, for my illustrator class, i expanded on the basic dress illustration that i made the other day and created variations and then compiled everything into a linesheet:

2011.02.23.tad: cthulhu comp, wip

2011-02-24T00:11:00.000-08:00

i worked on a first pass of a second product photo for my photoshop product photography assignment:

i crocheted this cthulhu doll a couple of years ago. it was from a book called creepy cute crochet: zombies, ninjas, robots, and more!.

i also worked on my pigopus comp some more:

i refined and smoothed the edges of my mask some more, hand painting and blurring where appropriate. i also adjusted my shadows and reflections.

2011.02.22.tad: basic dress tracing

2011-02-22T21:42:00.000-08:00

tracing of a basic dress pattern in my illustrator class:

we are just learning elementary techniques right now, as well as different, more efficient ways of working. we will take the same dress and apply different variations (sleeveless, longer, etc.) and then create a linesheet on thursday.

2011.02.21.tad: iq regolit

2011-02-21T19:46:00.000-08:00

tonight, i assembled a lamp that my friend gave me as a gift and attached it to an arc lamp base from ikea:

the light is from http://www.iqlight.com/ and is composed from 30 plastic pieces. i had made different versions of the lamp before and displayed them, but this is the first time i attached it to a lamp base. it's been on my todo list for a long time...

2011.02.20.tad: striped tee

2011-02-20T23:02:00.000-08:00

today i made a striped tee to go with my striped skirt:

i based it on a basic tee that i have and like. it turned out a little more fitted than i planned because my material was less stretchy than the original. i did try to account for it by making it a little bigger, but not enough, i guess. i need to smooth out the neckline, cut down the loose threads, and patch a few spots where the serger didn't sew all the way through, but i'll do that some other time...

2011.02.19.tad: pigopus comp, wip

2011-02-19T00:23:00.000-08:00

the first project in my photoshop class involves creating product ads from hi-res photographs of objects. i took a photo of the pigopus sculpey that i made last year and masked it out, then generated a background with a ground, cast shadows, and reflections. this is just a work in progress, there is a lot more work i should do, like making the back leg out of focus, fixing some issues with the mask, creating a more compelling composition and layout, and improving the shadows and reflections. i also painted my pigopus in photoshop because i never had a chance to do that in real life:

2011.02.18.tad: striped skirt

2011-02-18T16:12:00.000-08:00

today i made another skirt:

it's similar to the one i made the other day but with some changes (based on my experience wearing the other one). this one isn't reversible and has a longer second layer. i also used a serger this time instead of a sewing machine. it has exposed side seams and a fold over belt that is more narrow than the other one i made (it was a bit too loose last time). i usually wear the skirts over tights and under hoodies/tunics, so the waist doesn't really matter that much anyway.

2011.02.17.tad: basic tee, revisited

2011-02-17T20:40:00.000-08:00

today, in my illustrator class, we expanded on the basic tee that we made before and created a document containing the garment in 4 colorways, as well as corresponding fabric swatches and fashion related information text:

tomorrow, i don't have any classes, so i'll actually try to make something on my own, and not just take the lazy way out and post my class assignments...

2011.02.16.tad: car mask

2011-02-16T23:04:00.000-08:00

today i masked a car in photoshop and composited it onto a background that i generated for a class that i'm taking:

2011.02.15.tad: basic tee tracing

2011-02-15T21:40:00.000-08:00

an exercise from my illustrator class:

we learned various techniques to work efficiently and precisely and traced a basic tee shirt design that was provided.

2011.02.14.tad: inversion valentine

2011-02-14T22:53:00.000-08:00

today i designed a valentine's day card that is an inversion---it looks the same right side up and upside down:

it's something that i used to do with my own name and my friends' names (on their own, not combined) when i was younger. i got the idea of combining my hubby's name and mine into a single inversion for valentine's day.

2011.02.13.tad: reversible skirt

2011-02-13T19:57:00.000-08:00

i was feeling very lazy and uninspired today, but saw a post by starfive and was inspired to make a skirt too. i have tons of fabric lying around waiting to be used, so this was a good start.
unfortunately, some of the fabrics are only scraps and not big enough to make a skirt, so i had a hard time finding 2 fabrics that i liked together. i'll have to come up with other uses for the scraps, maybe during tad or beyond. here is my skirt:

i cut the shape from a dress that i have and like---basically, 2 pieces with a rounded bottom---but the fabric on that one is thicker, so this one hangs a bit differently. i liked the trapezoidal cut of the one that starfive did and might give that a try later this month.

2011.02.12.tad: neoclassical dress

2011-02-12T18:06:00.000-08:00

today, i illustrated another dress:

this was my inspiration. i drew it by hand, photographed it, and then colored it in photoshop.

2011.02.11.tad: hemmed jeans

2011-02-11T20:17:00.000-08:00

today, i hand-sewed some jeans that i had previously hemmed using this method:
http://home.comcast.net/~kozykitty/blog/originalhem.pdf

as the tutorial recommends, you can cut off the excess fabric, but i usually leave it on with the idea that i can change the hem if i need to. i do this because it takes me a while to figure out what kind of shoes i'm usually going to wear with the jeans, and sometimes, i change my mind. normally, the excess fabric isn't a problem. however, these particular jeans are slim/skinny throughout the leg but flared at the ankle, so whenever i walked, the excess fabric would flip out---not ideal---so i hand-sewed the fabric to the body of the jeans. i think they should work much better now.

actually, the ankle doesn't look that flared in the photo, but when worn, it is much more so.

2011.02.10.tad: happy rabbit chinese new year! revisited

2011-02-10T22:36:00.000-08:00

i have been telling myself for years that i should learn illustrator. i used it before, but it was forever ago. i decided to sign up for a class on illustrator concentrating specifically in fashion design. it started this week. so far, so good, i'm liking it a lot. today was the first day we worked in illustrator. we learned how to trace images and learned how to use the pen tool. i decided to redo my day 03 tad that i had done in photoshop because i wasn't happy with the line quality. i like it much better in illustrator:

also, here is the class exercise that we worked on today:

our intructor hand drew it and gave it to us to practice with. i traced and colored it in illustrator. the colors i chose were a little different than what was exported. i'll look into fixing that later...

2011.02.09.tad: birthday card

2011-02-09T21:22:00.000-08:00

today, my hubby hiked to top of a peak and called me when he got there. i made this card is to commemorate his achievement and celebrate his birthday too.

2011.02.08.tad: pet rock

2011-02-08T22:42:00.000-08:00

i have to admit i feel a bit lame posting this for today, but i am still sick and had a long day on top of that. i didn't really want to make anything today but decided to push through it. i decided that i wanted to make a pet rock using a piece of sea glass, but when i looked at my collection, none of them seemed suitable. i also didn't have any googly eyes, not that it's essential. in the end, i decided to make one out of sculpey:

i wanted it to have a marbled surface, which it sort of has, but i didn't work at it or try to control it that much. there is a piece of aluminum foil inside to help fill it out, and i tried to make the details neater than my football sculpey. i haven't baked it yet but will. i will probably glaze it after baking to give it a shinier, marble-like quality.

2011.02.07.tad: mass effect 2 me, revisited

2011-02-07T22:47:00.000-08:00

i have been sick for a couple of days and had no energy to do anything today. i sat in bed playing word games for most of the day while procrastinating in making my tad.

i am always wanting to learn new photoshop tricks and techniques. i decided to redo my avatar from day 01 by taking it into pshop and redoing proportions and other stuff. the result is a combination of resizing, scaling, and distorting the original avatar, as well as hand painting and cloning on top of it to smooth things out. i also copied my eyelids and a snippet of my hair from my original photo and comped those on top too. i know it still doesn't really look like me, but i think it's an improvement from before. i'm planning to use it as an avatar for some profiles.

2011.02.06.tad: sculpey superbowl

2011-02-06T20:41:00.000-08:00

today, i revisited something i made during my first tad, but in sculpey instead of plush form:

it's about a 1.5"x0.75" diameter at its widest point.

cross-posted here.

2011.02.05.tad: corona family

2011-02-05T21:56:00.000-08:00

i have a collection of corona bottles that i carried around with me for too long because i wanted to photograph them before i recycled them. here they are:

nothing remarkable, i know, i just liked the idea that they are the same thing but in different sizes. here are some more:

2011.02.04.tad: draw this dress

2011-02-04T16:41:00.000-08:00

a friend of mine showed me this blog: http://drawthisdress.tumblr.com/

i thought it was really cool and thought i'd try to illustrate a dress i saw at a museum exhibition of costume history:

my inspiration here.

cross-posted here

2011.02.03.tad: happy rabbit chinese new year!

2011-02-03T20:48:00.000-08:00

my interpretation of the chinese character for 'rabbit' : 兔子 (tùzi)

2011.02.02.tad: dress alteration

2011-02-02T17:36:00.000-08:00

today i finished a project that i started a while ago. i had bought a dress secondhand and didn't realize until later that it was actually a maternity dress. there was an inverted pleat in the skirt along the front that i took out and sewed back together after cutting excess fabric from the sides. i put it all back together, but the back of the dress didn't lay flat anymore, so my friend helped me pin darts into it to fix the problem.

to complete the project, i sewed the pinned darts into the skirt portion and also adjusted the torso darts to account for the narrower waist. i didn't have the right thread color, and my sewing machine tension seemed like it was a little off (i guess i'll have to deal with that at some point) so the new threads were too visible---i colored them with a sharpie to minimize them. here is the result with before and after pictures:

i need to iron it better before wearing but am overall happy with the adjustments. i have a closetful of clothing that needs similar alterations, so i might be posting more of these this month...

cross-posted here

2011.02.01.tad: mass effect 2 me

2011-02-01T21:22:00.000-08:00

i am excited to be participating in thing.a.day for the 4th year in a row. this is my first post:

i wasn't feeling so inspired today and decided to start out lazily. i have an obsession with making avatars. i like to try to make them look as much like me as possible, although they don't usually end up looking anything like me. the result today was no different, but it was still fun to try. meet ciggy shepard:

* my friend pointed out (and he is totally right) that i should include a comparison image, so here it is:

other views: front, left, right, up, down

other avatars i've made before: fallout3 (from tad2009), mii, wow chars: minimi (gnome) and nikita (blood elf)

i promise to try harder tomorrow...

original post here.

costuming and portraiture

2010-12-17T21:12:00.000-08:00

here is some costuming work that i did recently:

for more work, see my costuming set.

and a portraiture series:

i was interested in documenting people who sew or alter their own clothes. i photographed them wearing something they had sewn in the setting that they sew in. for more portraiture work (not part of the series), click here.

'die feen' fairy costumes

2010-06-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

i have been working as an assistant costume designer for an opera production of wagner's die feen (the fairies). the lead costumer hand-dyed a bunch of dresses, and i designed and sewed overlays for them. pictured below are the dresses in progress, and then the results on opening night:

i also helped to make the flower wreaths for their hair. for more pics of the production, see my flickr set.

2010.02.28.thing.a.day: tad summary

2010-02-28T12:15:00.000-08:00

for my last day of tad this year, i compiled a collage of many of my 'things' from february, as well as a photo triptypch with 3 of my favorite photos from the month:

i concentrated mainly on felt plushes and sculpey figurines, along with some photography and other sewing projects. i didn't make as many clothing/clothing reconstructions as i normally do, nor did i do any knitting, crochet, or drawing, but it's ok---hopefully, i'll have a chance to do some of those things in the coming year.

original post here.

2010.02.27.thing.a.day: cartoon shade

2010-02-27T17:24:00.000-08:00

today, i took a drawing that my friend, kevan, drew of me and shaded it usinga wacom tablet in photoshop elements:

i plan to use it as a profile pic/icon on different sites. thank you, kevan!

original post here.

2010.02.26.thing.a.day: snowpig snow globe

2010-02-26T10:33:00.000-08:00

today, i took the snowpig i made yesterday and incorporated it into a snow globe:

it went smoother than my last snow globe disaster. it's pretty tiny, so there wasn't much room for glitter or anything else, but i probably could've put a little more in. i'll probably keep it at my desk at work, along with the rest of my collection of little things.

original post here.

2010.02.25.thing.a.day: snowpig

2010-02-25T10:23:00.000-08:00

i'm going to try another snow globe, but thought i'd try something
much simpler than my previous globe/disaster. i made a snowpig
figurine today and will try to incorporate it into a snow globe tomorrow:

wish me luck!

original post here.

2010.02.24.thing.a.day: snow globe disaster

2010-02-24T09:56:00.000-08:00

i assembled my pigsea monster from yesterday and put it into a snow globe. i put everything into one jar, but put way too much glitter and confetti, and my monster was filling the jar and couldn't be seen under the glitter and confetti, so i tried to change to a bigger jar (too big) but by then, everything was covered with mineral oil, so i couldn't get the monster to adhere to the new lid. also, i ran out of mineral oil and filled the rest with canola oil so it's a bit yellowish/murky looking. i would say my experiment failed, but at least i learned something, right?

i might try again with a new sculpture, but modify my process.

original post here.

2010.02.23.thing.a.day: pigsea monster, work in progress

2010-02-23T10:13:00.000-08:00

i am making a sea creature to put in a snow globe:

today, i made and baked sculpey and started so sew some of the pieces
together with fishing line. i'll need to finish sewing the pieces together, then am going to try to assemble everything together in a handmade snow globe. this was more of a proof of concept/experimental thing since i've never made a snow globe before and want to see what one is like with moveable parts. i think i want the parts to be slower moving so want to figure out a way to mix a more viscous medium. any suggestions?

original post here.

2010.02.22.thing.a.day: tiger heart (revisited) and hot dog sculpeys

2010-02-22T11:35:00.000-08:00

today i revisited the tiger heart plush that i made in honor of valentine's day and chinese new year, year of the tiger, and made a tiger heart sculpey. this time, i added a body:

for more pics, see my tad flickr set.

i also made a little hot dog sculpey with what is supposed to be a mustard/ketchup smiley face:

original post here.

2010.02.20.thing.a.day: little mr. ice cream cone

2010-02-21T12:55:00.000-08:00

more colored sculpey work:

i'm having fun mixing colors.

original post here.

2010.02.20.thing.a.day: teeny tiny food sculpeys

2010-02-20T16:46:00.000-08:00

i ordered some colored sculpey and was happy to be able to try it. i
made miniature food sculptures of egg custard pie, edamame, and shrimp
dumpling (back to the dim sum theme sort of):

they are all less than an inch, on average between 0.25-0.5".

original post here.

2010.02.19.thing.a.day: cartoon me

2010-02-19T00:21:00.000-08:00

i took richard's idea: http://richardsplanet.posterous.com/gimping-0 and tried to make cartoon versions of myself, but i don't think i was so successful:

i had trouble reducing the color palette in elements. i tried posterizing, and also converting to grayscale, then posterizing, then setting a new color index.

original post here.

2010.02.18.thing.a.day: pigopus

2010-02-18T09:55:00.000-08:00

today, i made a pigopus, which is a combination a pig and an octopus, only it's only got 4 leg-tentacles, so it's more like a quadripus:

i was looking at jim woodring's crazy and imperial newts and wanted to go for something along that vein, but it turned out to be more aquatic looking than i envisioned, so i added suckers to the leg-tentacles.

original post here.

2010.02.17.thing.a.day: tiny skull

2010-02-17T09:49:00.000-08:00

i made a sculpey skull, it's tiny. i don't know the exact
measurements, but the height is probably about 0.75":

this is pre-baked, will bake later today...

original post here.

2010.02.16.thing.a.day: push me pull me elephant

2010-02-16T20:21:00.000-08:00

this is sort of cheating, but after i posted my pink elephant yesterday, jrmyst pointed out that it looks like an elephant in both directions. so i added eyes to his butt and baked him, and then put it all together in photoshop. here's the result:

original post here.

2010.02.15.thing.a.day: pink elephant

2010-02-15T16:43:00.000-08:00

i thought my sculpey piggy might need a friend so i made a pink elephant:

i guess it's more like a flesh-colored elephant than a pink one. i
haven't baked him yet, but will do that later today or tomorrow.

after i took the photos, i thought he looked a bit lopsided, so i evened out his legs so that they are less splayed looking. i also shortened the back legs to match the length of the front legs more and flattened all of the feet (made them less rounded).

original post here.

2010.02.14.thing.a.day: tiger heart

2010-02-14T13:11:00.000-08:00

today, i combined chinese new year and valentine's day into a plush valentine:

happy chinese new year and valentine's day to everyone!

original post here.

2010.02.13.thing.a.day: jersey a-line dress

2010-02-13T23:53:00.000-08:00

today i sewed a dress:

i based it off a dress that i own and like, but it's made of a silky material, whereas this one is made from 2 jersey materials. the top is cut from a tshirt, the bottom is the same printed fabric i used the other day for my haramaki project. i'll try to take a picture of me wearing it tomorrow when there is daylight.

original post here.

2010.02.12.thing.a.day: piggy skull

2010-02-12T21:42:00.000-08:00

my 2nd sculpey project, unbaked and baked (i overcooked it a little
again) versions:

i was trying to make something cute, but with a little more edge,
unlike my usual (cute cute) projects. it will go with my collections
of skulls and piggies.

original post here.

2010.02.11.thing.a.day: krotona of hollywood

2010-02-11T23:56:00.000-08:00

today, i was going to make another sculpey sculpture, but it was
gorgeous outside, so i went on a walk instead.
i walked through krotona of hollywood and took some photos.

for more photos, check out full flickr set:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cignoh/sets/72157623415592762/
for more information about krotona, check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krotona/

original post here.

2010.02.10.thing.a.day: this little piggy

2010-02-10T13:04:00.000-08:00

i have been wanting to try sculpting with sculpey, this is my first project:

it's made of super sculpey, and it measures about 1"x0.75"x0.75". i haven't tried to bake it yet but will do that soon, wish me luck!

update: here is the baked version:

i had thought about putting it into a snow globe, but since it's my first sculpey project, i decided to leave it alone. i added it to a collection of piggies that i have...

original post here.

2010.02.09.thing.a.day: plush blue velvet cupcake

2010-02-09T14:36:00.000-08:00

today, i made a plush blue velvet cupcake in honor of my husband's bday. happy birthday to jrmyst!

he's not dead, he's just sleeping...

2010.02.08.thing.a.day: a couple of haramakis

2010-02-08T21:45:00.000-08:00

in tad 2008, i made a haramaki, a japanese style belly warmer:
http://cignoh.blogspot.com/2008/02/20080229thingaday.html

i thought i would make more, but never did, but find that i wear the
one i made a lot. so, i made a couple more tonight:

one of them is made from the remaining tshirt material from my day 1 project (bob tshirt pillow), and the other is made from some fabric i bought a while back but haven't done anything with. i normally leave my tshirt creations unfinished so the hems roll up, but the orange jersey fabric i bought is printed, and the back is lighter than the front. i'll either leave it or add some kind of trim at some point.

original post here.

2010.02.07.thing.a.day: sunny day walk

2010-02-07T22:28:00.000-08:00

some photos i took while walking today:

2010.02.06.thing.a.day: rainy day walk

2010-02-06T20:23:00.000-08:00

some photos i took while walking today:

2010.02.05.thing.a.day: danta dim sum doll

2010-02-05T22:19:00.000-08:00

this is danta (egg custard pie):

i improvised a bit while making her, shortened her body attached the crust in a different way than i had envisioned. i have other ideas about how i might make another, perhaps it will be another 'thing' this month. or not, who knows?

2010.02.04.thing.a.day: yutougao dim sum doll

2010-02-04T14:48:00.000-08:00

this is a plush yùtougāo, or taro cake:

i actually like to eat turnip cake better than taro cake, but i wanted to make something more colorful to go along with the existing plush dim sum i made already. i'm planning to make more for the collection, but am giving zhongzi, shumai, and yutougao to my 2 nieces and 1 nephew tomorrow when i see them.

the yutougao has 1 separate cake and 2 cakes that are sewn together. i did this because i ran out of fabric and couldn't make 3 separate ones.

original post here.

2010.02.03.thing.a.day: shumai dim sum doll

2010-02-03T12:28:00.000-08:00

meet shumai:

my husband says she looks like a pig in a flower, and i agree that she does. i was going to give her a more similar look to my zhongzi yesterday with a face on the side, but somehow, it seemed to make more sense on top as i was making her. i wasn't sure how to wrap her, i had ideas of gathering thread along the top or using elastic, but in the end, i read instructions for how to wrap real shumai, and went with something similar. i wasn't able to sew everything on the machine like i did yesterday, but probably could've sewn her face on the machine if i had more foresight. i think the wrapper needed to be sewn by hand in any case.

original post here.

2010.02.02.thing.a.day: zhongzi dim sum doll

2010-02-02T21:07:00.000-08:00

this is the first in a series of plush toys that i want to make as presents for my nieces and nephew. this is zhongzi, which is stuffed glutinous rice wrapped in a bamboo leaf. i sewed everything entirely by machine (including the eyes and mouth) and sewed a running stitch along the outside seam, not wrong side out, then flip inside out like i normally do. this is because i am lazy, but i think it works ok (maybe a little messy):

i'd also like to make turnip cake, shu mai, mantou, and egg custard at some point.

original post here.

2010.02.01.thing.a.day: bob tshirt pillow

2010-02-01T13:18:00.000-08:00

i am participating in thing.a.day again this year, this is my first project:
original post here.

button down shirt to mini dress

2009-11-29T16:23:00.001-08:00

i took one of j's large, oversized shirts and made it into a mini dress. now that i look at it in the photos, it looks more like i'm wearing a large shirt than a dress. oh well. anyway, to make it, i cut a lot out of the body of the shirt on either side and reattached the sleeves, making them into puff sleeves (gathered before i resewed them on). the final product looks really simple, but i did try variations that i didn't like (elastic at the waist---made it look puffy and unflattering; a back panel to run a belt through along the back---didn't gather smoothly enough) to try to get it more fitted looking (but not too fitted). in the end, i just took in the sides even more and added 2 darts in the back. i plan to wear it with leggings and boots (as pictured) or over jeans, and i like it b/c it's cozy and comfy. i'm always on the lookout for mini dresses, long tops/tunics that i can wear over yoga clothes or just to wear out.

figure drawing class, week 3

2009-03-28T17:39:00.000-07:00

some drawings from this week's class (full set):

3 min pose

3 min warmup

3 min poses

15 min pose

we did a series of 1 min drawings where we observed the figure for 3 seconds and then drew from memory for 57 seconds (not pictured above, but included in the full set). that was a challenging but interesting exercise.

we also had our longest pose so far for 15 minutes. i feel like the longer i draw, the worse my drawing gets. but that was good for me to try too, the idea is that you spend more time on tone---trying to model the figure with light and shadow.

figure drawing class, week 2

2009-03-22T14:38:00.000-07:00

here are drawings from my second week of figure drawing class:

warmup	warmup	5-min poses
5-min poses	8-min poses	8-min poses
1-min gesture	30-sec, left hand	30-sec, right hand

here is the full set.

we discussed the idea of constructing the figure using 3d forms (spheres, cylinders, and cubes) and also of breaking away from preconceived notions that we have about drawing in order to push to a higher level of understanding and observation.

figure drawing class

2009-03-15T12:23:00.000-07:00

i started to get somewhat frustrated with my attempts to draw recenty, and my friend suggested that i take a figure drawing class. i thought about it and decided it would be a good idea for me to get some practice and instruction in a structured environment. the first class was on friday---all day long! i expected to be exhausted, but it wasn't that bad. here are some of my drawings:

warmup	warmup
overall composition	single figure composition
1-min gesture	1-min gesture

for more, see my flickr set

also, as a follow-up from last week, i bought a wacom tablet and re-painted my self-caricature:

it's definitely soooo much easier to paint with the wacom tablet than it is with the mouse...

self-caricature (again)

2009-03-09T16:08:00.001-07:00

i tried another version of a self-caricature based on this photo, taken by jrmyst.

i like the pencil version better than the color one---something seems kind of unnatural around the mouth/lip area for some reason---maybe it is overly-pronounced? anyway, i feel like it resembles me less than the pencil version. in the pencil one, i scanned in the original drawing and made a few tweaks/adjustments in photoshop, including adding eye/hair color and playing with proportions/angles a bit.

2009.02.28.thing.a.day: crochet bomb

2009-02-28T16:14:00.000-08:00

today i remade the bomb pet that i made before, but this time, i crocheted instead of knitting, as per robinde's suggestion:

he is much tinier than his knit cousin, and he kind of looks like he's wearing a beret, but that's ok, i like him too.

i'm sad that today is the last day of tad, i've enjoyed it. i'm going to continue to try to create, maybe not every day, but hopefully not too infrequently. you can find me on my blog. until next year...

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.27.thing.a.day: mount wilson

2009-02-27T22:00:00.000-08:00

today i shot some photos around sunset:

for more, see my flickr photo set.

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.26.thing.a.day: pet bomb

2009-02-26T22:01:00.001-08:00

here is the finished pet bomb from yesterday:

i trying to improvise and make the spherical body by modifying the elephant that i knit before, but i wasn't counting my stitches or paying close attention and ended up with a HUGE sphere, not at all what i was imagining, so i had to frog everything and start over. i worked everything out on paper before i started knitting again the second time, and it went much more smoothly. i think that was probably a good lesson for me to learn for future projects. i do that when i sew, but it's much easier to fix/redo things than in knitting, so i think i can't work in such a free-form manner when knitting...

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.25.thing.a.day: knitting work-in-progress

2009-02-25T23:55:00.000-08:00

i started to knit something today, but it doesn't look like i'll be able to finish, so i'm posting a wip, which i don't normally like to do, but here it is anyway. i'm knitting a pet bomb---here is the start of it, as well as 2 drawings of what i'm considering. one possibility would be to have the bomb upright with 2 eyes; another would be to make the top part it's nose and add 2 eyes. i might add feet too. i'm basing the body on how i knit the elephant head/trunk, with some modifications. also, i'll knit a fuse when i'm done in orange or orangey-yellow:

thoughts?

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.25.thing.a.day: more night photos

2009-02-24T23:50:00.000-08:00

i took some more night photos today on the roof of our apartment complex:

the figure is about 2 inches high, and he's from the dudson's modern tales toy series by nathan jurevicius.

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.23.thing.a.day: mr. ice cream cone

2009-02-23T23:53:00.000-08:00

today i experimented with some soft pastels that i bought recently. i've never used them before but liked them. i took a wayne thiebaud painting that i like as a inspiration but tried to alter the color palette:

because i was working with a set of indian summer colors, i found that i couldn't get some of the colors that i was looking for (richer dark blue shadows, etc.). i like how the pastels blend better than color pencils, but it's hard to get fine control/detail with them, i found.

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.02.thing.a.day: pink Jesus

2009-02-22T18:06:00.000-08:00

today i photographed a pink Jesus action figure:

i was planning to try to greenscreen the figure and paint a background in photoshop or using watercolor pencils, but i thought the pink and green color combination was pleasing, so i left it the way it was. i used a 60 mm macro lens from a low angle to shoot. he is sitting on a curved piece of green posterboard and is lit from one side with a fill card on the opposite side. he's about 2 inches tall.

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.21.thing.a.day: eat a bowl of lollipop

2009-02-21T22:43:00.001-08:00

i was feeling lazy today because i spent most of the day yesterday knitting my pink elephant. all i did was take a photo of a lollipop that i'm having for dessert:

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.20.thing.a.day: pink elephant

2009-02-21T01:06:00.000-08:00

here is the elephant i started to knit yesterday and finished today:

it took much longer to knit than i thought it would. it kind of looks like a cross between an aardvark, a piglet, and maybe an elephant somewhere in there, but i kinda like him. i put some eyelashes (making it a her) but it looked scary and freakish looking, so i took them off. this the pattern that i used, it's one that's been sitting in my ravelry queue for a LONG time...

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.19.thing.a.day: bignoh

2009-02-20T00:37:00.000-08:00

today, i started to knit an elephant, but i didn't finish it in time, so i took a photo for my post instead:

i liked that there is both real and fake condensation on the cup.

i'll try to post my elephant tomorrow.

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.18.thing.a.day: lighting exercise

2009-02-18T23:29:00.000-08:00

today, i tried to light a reflective object on a reflective surface:

i got the idea from this tutorial. i think that i didn't light the background strongly enough and/or the angle that i took the picture from was maybe a little too high. i had other examples where the background blended better, but the clock didn't look as good. i'm going to try to read a little more about lighting metal and try again maybe.

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.07.thing.a.day: mr. house

2009-02-17T23:25:00.000-08:00

it's working out pretty well that whenever i can't think of anything to make, i can make more cute stuff. tonight, i made mr. house to go along with the rest of the set. i only have mr. office left unless i want to add other ones. mr. bicycle maybe?

i modified the design from the book to match the look of the others a little better.

cross-posted on my blog

2009.02.16.thing.a.day: mr. car

2009-02-16T23:53:00.000-08:00

today i decided to make more cute stuff and made mr. car to go along with mr. key:

i was too lazy to switch my thread color, but i probably should've as the lines are very prominent and uneven. also, the loop that attaches to the ring isn't sewn on properly, so i'll need to redo that too.

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.15.thing.a.day: blue rose

2009-02-15T16:02:00.001-08:00

i made a blue rose out of duct tape:

here are some instructions. i hope to make a duct tape wallet at some point.

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.14.thing.a.day: valentine's day card

2009-02-14T21:20:00.000-08:00

i made a valentine's day card today---i borrowed the envelope from the card holder that i made the other day, and made tokens to put inside:

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.13.thing.a.day: keys and glasses

2009-02-13T16:53:00.001-08:00

i did a couple more quick sketches of my keys and glasses:

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.12.thing.a.day: headphones

2009-02-12T15:54:00.001-08:00

i only had time for a quick 20-minute sketch of some headphones today, here is a photograph of them:

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.11.thing.a.day: night skyline

2009-02-11T23:58:00.000-08:00

i took a couple of photos at night:

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.10.01.thing.a.day: knit cap

2009-02-10T20:33:00.000-08:00

i finished making a knit hat that i started months ago but hadn't gotten very far on:

it's very simple, just a basic hat style using stockinette stitch for the entire hat so it rolls on the end, but i don't mind that.

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.09.thing.a.day: felted miffy and photodocumentary cleanup

2009-02-09T20:36:00.001-08:00

about a year ago, a group of us decided to make little animals for our friend's baby mobile, but my friend found that she didn't enjoy making hers, so i offered to finish it for her. it has been sitting in my to-do pile since then, so i decided to finally finish it. she wanted to make a bunny rabbit head that was inspired by miffy, a small female bunny rabbit from a children's book series. she had already cut out the material and sewn about a third of it, so all i needed to do was finish sewing, add the face and stuffing, and then hand-sew it shut. i extended the ears down a bit from how they were before so that they looked more like ears. if i were to do it again, i would consider sewing separate ear pieces onto the head, but i wanted to honor the original design as much as possible.

i also cleaned and organized a bit, which has been an ongoing goal of mine for a while now. i decided to try to break it up into smaller groups, and i photographed some of the items i ended up throwing or putting away in an effort to help me let go of them more easily.

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.08.thing.a.day: fallout 3 me

2009-02-08T22:03:00.000-08:00

this is a bit lame, but i was feeling lazy, and played video games all day. i made an avatar of myself for the game fallout 3:

i have an obsession with trying to create video game characters that look as much like me as possible even when they can't possibly look anything like me. i like that fallout 3 gave a variety of controls, way more than other games i have played before.

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.07.thing.a.day: giant sewer rat

2009-02-07T20:08:00.001-08:00

today i made a rat out of fleece and felt:

i might add a tail, but i haven't decided yet. his eyes probably aren't supposed to be red, but i kinda liked them that way... i didn't have any black felt or fleece, so i colored a piece of gray fleece with a sharpie.

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.06.thing.a.day: mr. key ring

2009-02-06T21:25:00.000-08:00

i couldn't think of what to make/do today, so i took the easy way out and made something else from 'let's make cute stuff by aranzi aronzo!' (see my post from yesterday). it's a key ring named 'mr. key':

there are also instructions/patterns to make a car, house, and a building, and the text reads:

use mr. house for your house keys.
use mr. car for your car keys.
use mr. building for your office keys.
use mr. key for all your other keys.
pretty obvious, right?

what do you think?

cross-posted on thing.a.day 2009

2009.02.05.thing.a.day: cute card holder

2009-02-05T22:11:00.001-08:00

i have a very bad craft book habit... i have way too many. one of the things i vowed to do this month is try to make at least one thing out of every book i have that i haven't made anything from (sadly, there are quite a few). so tonight, i made something out of 'let's make cute stuff by aranzi aronzo!'... it definitely has some pretty cute stuff, i have to say. i made a business card holder for my sister, and i tried to choose colors that i thought she would like:

i love the description in the book: 'imagine you're exchanging name cards with a capable-looking young lady in a business suit. what if she took her card out of a handmade card holder? wouldn't that be surprising? wouldn't that be be astonishing? wouldn't that be fun?'

i would also like to try various pouches, appliques, key rings, bugs, and bags from the book. if you haven't seen it before, i recommend it, it's cram-packed with lots of cute, doable, but practical projects.

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.04.thing.a.day: skunk softie

2009-02-04T23:30:00.000-08:00

today i made a skunk softie doll out of felt:

i kept procrastinating all day and didn't start working on it until 11 pm, so i missed the deadline by an hour. i originally started to draw a skunk earlier in the day, but last minute, i decided that i'd rather make a stuffed animal. i did a very quick rough sketch and looked at a seal softie that a friend made for me for guidance, but other than that, i worked very haphazardly making 3 identically shaped pieces for the body sides/bottom, and a top stripe, and circles for the snout/back of the body. i sewed everything together then realized that i didn't leave space for the legs and tail, so i had to take everything apart to add them. also, on my first attempt, i sewed a white circle for the back of the body before i realized that it should be dark, but i had sewn my stitches too tightly to take out, so i just re-cut new pieces and started again. he isn't done yet, as you might notice, from the big gaping hole along his stripe, and also, the fact that his eyes and nose haven't been sewn on. but i like him as a start and will finish him, i'll post finished results eventually.

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.03.thing.a.day: scifi me

2009-02-03T23:00:00.001-08:00

today i tried a photoshop tutorial from a set of images that a friend showed me:

i don't have photoshop, so i had to come up with ways to achieve similar effects using a watered down paint program. also, i probably would've chosen a different original image (shirt and background) if i'd realized what was in store for me because i had a lot of difficulty getting the hair and figure to isolate properly. as a result, portions of the image are unusable and that's why it's cropped so closely. i did go in and add scales to the lower body like the example, but i had to chop all that off. i almost gave up and started a different project but because i had invested quite a bit of time in it already, i wanted to salvage what i could. i learned a bunch about photoshop and will try to apply the techniques to future projects.

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.02.thing.a.day: self-caricature

2009-02-02T22:00:00.000-08:00

today i drew a caricature of myself. this is the original drawing, which i altered in photoshop (changed the proportions/angles of some features, flattened the bottom shape of my eye, tilted the angle of my nose more, cut/paste mouth from another drawing, etc.) and this is the photograph that it is loosely based on. i may work with it more and try to add color, or i may try a different version in the future.

cross-posted on thing.a.day

2009.02.01.thing.a.day: farmer's market tomato

2009-02-01T13:29:00.000-08:00

yay! thing a day has started again, i'm excited! here is my post:

i live next to a farmer's market, so it's really easy for me to go, but somehow, i never make it there as often as i would like. this morning, i went to buy a tomato to eat with some avocado that i've had/need to finish. i started to take a photo a day last march and made it most of the way through the year to december and was planning to continue until march again this year, but then i stopped in january for some reason. i decided to pick up my photo a day again this month for thing a day so that i will have at least a photograph each day (hopefully other stuff too). to this end, i decided to photograph the tomato, as well as draw it with some colored pencils that i just bought.

i haven't drawn in a long time but thought i'd try again for this year's tad. i had difficulty getting the richness/saturation that i was looking for with the colored pencils, and it seemed like it was hard to blend as much as i wanted too. i have some other media that i'll experiment with throughout the month, as well as working digitally.

i also plan to do some sewing, knitting, crochet, and other crafty/creative projects. i did tad last year and found it to be very inspiring and fun, i'm looking forward to this year!

cross-posted on thing.a.day

christmas cthulhu

2008-12-26T11:15:00.001-08:00

christmas cthulhu
Originally uploaded by cignoh

i knit a cthulhu doll for j for christmas this year. it's from creepy cute crochet, which lanaconqueso showed me, and i ended up buying, despite the fact that i'm trying not to buy anymore craft books until i make at least one thing from each of the books that i own. i'm not that good at crocheting, so he is a little misshapen in parts, and his wings aren't really wing-shaped, but that's ok, it makes him one of a kind, i guess.

i experimented with a makeshift light tent with some success, but i'd like to work with it more. i was getting double shadows on the ground, plus, i couldn't get good shaping, which i guess is part of what happens if your subject is evenly lit from all sides. also, the top of my setup is open and exposed, which i think isn't supposed to be.

photo backlog

2008-12-01T08:33:00.000-08:00

it's been FOREVER since i posted, i'll try to be better about it. i don't really have anything crafty to document, but i had been trying to keep up with my photo.a.day project for the last 5 months. i hadn't been posting those either, but last night, i caught up from sept. 7. here are some samples:

july: photography workshop continued, shooting 'red' things

august: alligator clip and korean melon

september: art gallery patron and parking lot light

october: international rose garden in portland, OR

november: pomegranate seeds, toddler eating pomegranate seeds

i missed a few days here and there and am trying to come up with a way to make up the photos, does anyone have an ideas? i thought about trying to think of something significant that happened that day (although i may not remember)---either to myself or something that happened in the world, and trying to recreate or take a photo that is reminiscent of it. or maybe picking a theme like letters of the alphabet or numbers or colors (either a single color or different ones), etc.

drip drop

2008-06-22T22:41:00.001-07:00

Originally uploaded by cignoh

today i tried to photograph water drops. i googled and read a little about doing it and loosely followed some of the techniques. i shot outside in bright sunlight holding a water bottle over the water and shooting in continuous mode. i didn't use a tripod. the water bottle didn't offer enough control, a dropper, as one of the articles suggests, would be a lot better. i don't know if i set my focus point carefully enough, so some of my drops were out of focus. i must have taken between 50-100 photos, of which only a few were useable/actually captured drops.

http://www.photosig.com/articles/1489/article
http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/how-to-photography-water-drops/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickwheeleroz/2440342279/

i would try it again maybe using colored lights, a tripod, or other things etc. for a different and possibly more precise effect.

here are more of my results.

photography workshop, crafty things, and more

2008-06-19T11:21:00.000-07:00

haven't posted in a while, this is what i've been up to:

photography workshop

grafitti/piggie

crafty

from top to bottom, left to right:

i started taking a photography workshop at lunch once a week. last week (first week) we explored f-stops, and this week, we're working on shutter speed.

shutter speed: i captured the fountain image using a fast shutter speed---i'll try to put up an example of the same fountain using a slow shutter speed so that the water looks soft and filmy.
f-stops: for dof, i shot a series of varying f-stops. then i photographed a mcdonald's happy meal kung fu panda toy with bokeh. i'm collecting all of them and want to do portraits of each. here are the ones i have so far (along with other pics related to kung fu pandas and/or just to pandas).

next are miscellaneous photos i took as part of my photo a day project.

la river graffiti: the first is part of a group that i took along the la river during lunch one day. more can be found here. i had a 50 mm lens which wasn't ideal, it was hard to convey a sense of the space and capture enough of the scene, i might try to go back sometime and shoot with a wider lens.
microwave piggie: the second is a microwave splatter screen that robinde gave me. i liked that the entire image is white.

finally, here are a couple of crafty projects.

constantine tshirt recon: one is an older tshirt reconstruction that i did, and the photo is part of my effort to document the things i've made. i took the portrait outside using the reflectors that i bought recently.
baby mobile: the second is a baby mobile that a few of us made for our friend. we constructed the animals on our own (i made a piggie that i blogged before), then a few of us got together and constructed the mobile from hangers and yarn---we didn't want it to look tacky (handmade, not homemade, as my friend put it)---and were pretty happy with the results.

lazy may

2008-05-27T22:49:00.000-07:00

i had a lazy may in that i didn't go very far out of my way to take photos for my photo.a.day project. i mostly documented my daily life---crafts that i made; restaurants that i went to and the food and people that i saw in them; people, places, and things i saw during my commute. here are the results:

crochet
people
piggies
nature
misc
la
refashion
food

flickr set for month of may can be found here...

another tshirt dress and outdoor self-portrait experiments

2008-05-17T20:11:00.001-07:00

i decided to make another tshirt dress by combining three tshirts. the first was one that a friend gave me but that i haven't worn in a long time---i left it intact since it fit well, and i modified the other two into a an asymmetrical drapey skirt, similar to the one i made last week but longer. the dress was inspired by the same book that i used last week, t-shirt makeovers by sistahs of harlem. i originally attached the skirt to another shirt but wasn't paying attention to the measurements and found the skirt wasn't wide enough---also, the shirt was a little too short-waisted, i thought it looked better with the longer top. after a lot of seam ripping, i came up with this...

Originally uploaded by cignoh

i haven't been that happy with the results that i'm getting photographing myself inside, so i decided to try shooting outside. i have a bunch of clothing projects that i made but didn't document since 2006 so i plan to experiment with taking photographs of myself wearing them. i even bought some reflectors today and was using them in the above photo, but i'm not sure if it's obvious since i'm so frontally lit (or maybe i put the reflector in the wrong place)...

below is a photo that i took earlier this week without using reflectors. it's a ruffled tshirt that i made, again from the same book. like i said, i really like the book... i thought the sunlight was too bright on the left side, and the shadow side a little too dark, so that's why i got the diffusor/reflectors, but when i went to take a photo in the same spot today, there was a car in the way, so i'll try again another day...

Originally uploaded by cignoh

tshirt dress

2008-05-11T13:23:00.001-07:00

Originally uploaded by cignoh

i went shopping yesterday and was looking for spring/summery dresses, but didn't buy anything. instead, today i decided to make a tshirt dress out of an old braveland tshirt from my husband, some brown jersey material that i had for the skirt, and a strip of wool plaid from a skirt that i made before. the dress has a tie-neck collar that is kind of hard to see in the photo, and the skirt has extra fabric on the side for draping. i got the idea from a book called 't-shirt makeovers' by sistahs of harlem, carmia marshall and carmen webber (i love this book, btw) and followed the basic form but made some modifications---the instructions called for a mesh material for the belt, which i didn't have, so i substituted the wool plaid. also, the right hip was a little bumpy (also can't see in the photo, but on purpose) so i reshaped the lines around that part, and the arms/bust area didn't fit that well so i sewed a darts on either side. as a result, the shirt no longer says 'braveland' but 'd' 'upside down U' 'raveland'. i like it.

shabu shabu

2008-05-09T07:13:00.001-07:00

last night, i had a korean-style shabu shabu meal. i haven't had shabu shabu in a long time, and usually when i do, it's either japanese- or chinese-style, but it was cool to try it it korean-style... there are some differences from what i'm used to. you cook the meats and veggies in broth (water?) like normal, but instead of eating them in a soup bowl, you eat them in lettuce wraps that have rice and shredded egg on top (not cheese!). there were a bunch of dipping sauces that i liked---a bean-like sauce that you add for the lettuce wraps, as well as a peanut and spicy sauce for meats and seafood and a dumpling sauce for dumplings and also some kim chee. after the meal, they prepared a kim chee rice porridge that was also yummy. finally, they serve a mochi dessert, along with a cinnamon drink that i've never had before---i liked it a lot and want to know where i can get more... it reminded me of goldschlager but without the gold sparkly bits, a lot less intensely cinnamon, and non-alcoholic. i think there were a couple of pine nuts in it too which i thought was a nice touch.

here are some pics, although they are very grainy because of the low light...

	dipping sauces
	boiling broth
	meat and veggies starting to cook
	lettuce wraps
	meats and seafood
	ingredients for kimchee rice porridge
	kimchee rice porridge
	mochi dessert and cinammon drink

Originally uploaded by cignoh