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Showing posts from April, 2014

Unicorn Take #2

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This is a bigger version of the last unicorn print I did, and this is a lot bigger then the last. The whole plate is A3 size, which is allowing me to add more detail to it, but is going to take awhile and there are 2 do to lol My poor hand is going to hate me when I am done.

Know When to Give Up

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Some art you just can't finish and you can't fight it or you will get nothing done. There really isn't that much wrong with this right now, besides being boring,but I think that is the main reason I just don't want to finish it. Not everything works out when you create. And the finished drypoint plate of the 2 boats. Really wish I had a press right now so I could use ink with it, but hopefully I will be able to print it on Thursday.

Not a Bird??

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Working on a little dry point etching for college so I can try out a different technique for me, Chine-collé . Allows me to add colours to the etching but the print still looks like an etching, so hopefully its as easy as it looks. And then once I am done with this, I need to start on 2 etchings that are pretty big... A3 sized . I am crazy for trying to make a plate that big lol

Music Monday

Yeah I have already had one of their vidoes on the blog, but they are one of my favourite bands :)

Numb Hands....

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  One of the problems I have with dry point is that after awhile my hand does start to go numb due to the MS. So I need to either take an hour break or hold the etching tool a little harder and hold it like a little kid holds a pencil. Have a death grip on it, wrapped in my fist. Looks really awkward but gets the job done. Why is it that it took almost 30 years to find a medium to work on that I love and just fits me perfectly, and now I have to deal with the fact the physical aspects of it stop me from producing the amount of work I want to??  I can only print about 2 prints before I need to take a break or I fall over lol I could just etch the prints, and leave them as is, but I really like the inked printed look, so will have to find ways to work around my disability. (or get someone else to print them for me I guess. Need a toy boy who can work a printing press :p)

Scottish Word of the Week

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  This weeks word is, kenspeckle.  Last weeks word, whitterick, is a weasel or stoat, (I don't have a picture of one sadly :/)

Sea Eagle Etching Update

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Adding more feathers to the Sea Eagle :) Need to darken the area under the beak a bit more and add a bit more shading to the shoulder, but really liking how this is looking :) And I probably could branch out a bit and etch something other than birds, but I enjoy the challenge of creating the feathers. And I also have a lot of reference images we have taken of various birds from some of the festivals in the area. I want to go to one of the falconry centres in the area and get some pics of some different birds, so I need to email them to ask about how they are set up for people that have problems walking.

Promised Peacock

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Not done, but almost done with the blue. Need to add more purple and dark blues to it and shade the neck a bit more and then on to the wings. Hopefully get time to work on it tomorrow *crosses fingers*

Holy Crap

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I've posted this pretty much everywhere, but I want a record of it here. This is the course I will be doing. I really didn't think my portfolio was good enough to get into Uni, guess I was wrong :p yay :) I promise art later, busy working on the peacock and researching about using solarplates for printing.

Wordless Wednesday

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Dog who got the cream?

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Someone looks very smug in this photo....

Something Different from Me

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  This is for the mixed media class in college, a sculpture thingy :p Shapes from making a mind map about MS cut up with stencilled on words from the mind map. The words either have to do with symptoms, types, signs or medication you can take.The wire allows the shapes to wobble like a person with MS can. See I can be all arty farty  when I need to :p   I have no idea what I am going to with all of the stuff I have made for this class, its either huge, or heavy so have nowhere to really put it.

Music Monday

Pretty Peacock #2

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Small update on the peacock. I had wanted to work on it today but woke up with a horrible migraine which hopefully continues to go away. So to add to the list of things I can't eat/drink or risk having a migraine; mentos, or actually any type of candy it seems. :/ Soon I will be stuck eating gruel :p

Scottish Word of the Week

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  This weeks word is ,whitterrick. Cindy guessed the last words correctly :)   Breeks are trousers and peely-wally is a term used to describe an unhealthy looking person. 1.breeks 2. peely-wally

Green Unicorn

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  The printed unicorn figurehead done in green because I didn't want to open the new black ink at college :p For a quickish little etching it turned out OK :) Now onto a few bigger etchings of some boats, just need to cut the plexi-glass and I don't actually know if I will print from the plates. I might just leave them uninked since I like that look to when presented right.

Eagles Etching Printed

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Managed to get one good print of the 2 eagles today, and 2 prints of the unicorn figurehead. I really wish I could print more because I would have had a few more plates printed and another few prints of this, but I get really limpy and unbalanced, MS rears it ugly head because of the physical parts of printing. Inking the plates, forcing the ink into the lines, wiping the plate, putting the plate through the printer....Don't get me wrong its not overly physical printing these, but its enough to knock me on my ass sometimes. Probably going to be pretty sore in the morning :/ I need to be one of those uber famous artist that gets their lackeys to do all the grunt work lol

Only Stabbed Myself Once Scratching This

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  Almost done this small etching for college. I only see a few things that need work on it and then I can try to print at least one print tomorrow. I really need to start on a bigger etching soon for college since its due in 3 weeks and it might take awhile to do lol

Wordless Wednesday

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Jaw Update

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So had a fallow up appointment at maxillofacial  for my jaw, and I can open my mouth 25mm which is a huge improvement and the doctor I saw, (the head huncho in the department who I was surprised to see because he is so busy), he seemed  very happy with everything. Told him about how when I eat on the right side where that joint was replaced I get an electric shock just like the feeling in my face, perfectly normal so thats good at least. from this site This is pretty much what my jaw looks like now and it was so swollen because of all the screws needed. Looking for this photo I did come across some pretty bloody looking photos of the surgery. I have no problem watching slasher/horror movies but I have a problem looking at those photos. Probably because I had the surgery and don't want to see how it was done :p And the scar is fading :) Not that I am really that concerned, I have a lot of scars already and I think they tell a story.

Music Monday

An angry Canadian :p

Making a Mess Printing

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 Actually surprisingly I didn't make that much of a mess, besides getting paint all over my hands :p Wanted to see if the lino needed any more carving before I printed it with ink, so out came the gelliplate. The above is a print pulled from the plate after I put the lino down on it, and the below  is a rough print from the lino after I put it on the gelliplate and it grabbed the paint off of it. Don't think it needs any more carving, if anything I probably should have left more on the wooden part of the ship so it looked more wooden.

Pretty Peacock

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Started to colour the peacock. Still need to work on the eye area and darken the marks on his face. I'm glad I have a lot of blue pencils, but you can never have too many :p And finished a small lino for my Graded Unit for college. This isn't the end project, but we have to do a lot of development work for our ideas, so made this up so I would have a lino to print plus another type of printing, (probably etching).

Drawing or Painting?

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Back to coloured pencils for this bird for when I need a break from etching and the graded unit for college. I have no idea why it bugs me, but it does when people call coloured pencil work paintings, its not paint. Then again, pastel works are called paintings, so I guess it doesn't really matter in the long run. I call them drawings since it is a pencil used, but die hard coloured pencil users freak on me for it....relax people, its only a pencil :p

New Etching

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Started another etching and this is going to take awhile with all of the feathers I need to do and this bird is almost 9 inches of area to etch.....

Wordless Wednesday

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Finished Eagles

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Finally finished the eagles, and really happy with how they turned out :) Will be interesting to see how it looks actually printed from a press. Up next, another raptor. Surprise, surprise :p

Scottish Word of the Week

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  Forgot last week, so here are 2 words :) 1.breeks 2. peely-wally The last word,  dook , means to duck, dip or bathe. :)

Aliens

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My favourite movie is Aliens , partly due to the design of the aliens and all of the scenery, and also because its such a cheesy movie :p We wont mention the crush I had on Michael Biehn at the age of 12 :p..... I want to try to colour this with painter or photoshop, but I am out of practice and need to relearn a lot of stuff. Must find my Wacom tablet...think its in the closet (hopefully).

Ruined Plate

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  I wanted to have this done today, but another migraine put a stop to that :/ The basics are almost done and then I just need to go over some areas to darken them. Not sure what I am going to try next, probably a bird tho since I do have a lot of photos from different events in the area that had birds on show. Jeanette has made a bottlejack press and uses that for her etchings. Father-in-Law has a frame, I would just have to get the bottle jack and either some thick metal sheets or thick wood to support the plate and we could build one. I was going to build a press with rollers, but a bottlejack press will print etchings and would be a lot cheaper to build.   The ruined plate :p It was like runny goo and then it dried like this. You can see how the top edge is warped, its not straight any more and John's hand imprint on it :p

And Then there Were 2

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  Started to add the second bird :) Going to have to darken the bird in the background to push him/her behind the front bird, but want to wait until more of the front bird is done. The plate for the last eagle I did was ruined...actually melted :p Cleaned it with carb-cleaner, reacted to the plastic and thankfully no one here smokes because lets just say um...there would have probably been a fire if someone did,(napalm o.0). Good to know not to do that again lol

Wordless Wednesday

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March Book Wrap Up

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So busy with college and I keep hurting myself or getting sick, so not a lot of time read :/ Managed to finish 2 books and 4 graphic novel/comic volumes. I am reading about 4 books at the moment, so will hopefully have them finished soon *crosses fingers* The Archived (The Archived #1) byVictoria Schwab 3 out of 5  Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey My rating: 4 of 5 stars Really enjoyed reading this book :) Parts were funny, theres a bit of a mystery involved, some parts were exciting to read and there was a bit of horror thrown in as well. The main characters are what really makes this book. You do start caring what happens to them, and want them to survive to appear in the next book. Def. a must read for fans of space operas and 561 pages seems like it could be a lot to read, but I didn't find that things dragged on. Just a short review for now, will post a longer one, once I finish the series Sweet Tooth, Vol. 1: Out of the De

Matted Cranes

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Had my cranes matted, a good mount can really make a piece look so much better :) I swear I need a suit made out of bubble wrap :p I either broke bones in my foot, or tore the muscles in my foot,(according to physio), but since x-rays can have a hard time seeing the break, getting an x-ray can be pointless, but in either case the only thing to do is rest my foot. Maybe I should wear my steel toes boots all the time lol