cignohblog

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

2009.02.15.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

2009.02.18.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

2009.02.01.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

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

2009.02.03.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

2009.02.04.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

2009.02.05.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

2009.02.06.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