Fuzzydragons

Probably not going to finish anything else in the next 6 or 7 hours, so this is what I managed to read this month :)   The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin My rating: 3 of 5 stars I liked it, great world and character building but....too much politics and I think I am sick of hearing about politics since its everywhere with the general election going on. Maybe if I read it in a different year/time I would have enjoyed it more. Did seem like a very abrupt ending after such a build up. Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley My rating: 4 of 5 stars The art goes great with the story, def. full of Canadian humour...hard to explain why tho, it just feels Canadian :p The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy My rating: 4 of 5 stars Its a Hardy book, you know its going to be depressing, but this wasn't all doom and gloom, some of it is really wonderful to read. Well written characters, even if one of them sells his wife and child ...

Starting to look fuzzy now :) Need to fix the shadows on his beak. If I can figure out how to set up the camera so it will tape one of these being made without getting in the way, would anyone be interested in seeing one of these from start to finish?? I will probably try to figure this out even just for my reference but need to think about how to film it since I don't work on an aisle with these, so the camera would either need to be over my shoulder or hanging from a shelf. 

Looks like his make up ran :p While I wait until I get some bigger plates marked and cut, I figured might as well use up the small ones I have. So here is the start of a little owlet, well almost full grown so not sure what to call it actually.And we think its a Grey owl, but might have to do a bit more searching around to make sure.

Love love love this paper. Cannot say how much I love it lol Looks at empty wallet *cries*, *roll on student loan time* Well you get what you pay for it seems. I did try using normal sand paper, and while it does work, doesn't seem to blend as well as this but would work if a person was desperate and wanted to practice. Now I'm wishing I had of done something different with the background, not too sure of the colours. Probably should have went with browns and yellows to go with her eyes. Oh well, its not too bad.

I don't draw enough dragons anymore, really need to get on that. But around this time, 2004 I was drawing a lot of them, so they will probably be showing up a lot in the art Throwback Thursdays I post lol, so much that people will probably get sick of them.

Thanksgiving 1985, so I am 4, almost 5 Danielle would be almost 2 and the horses :p are our uncles, well half uncles on mom's side. The one on the left in blue broke a lot of bones falling off the Niagara Escarpment later on in life and ended up living at the house we were in for awhile because like I said, broke a lot of bones and needed help with everything. What confuses me about this photo, says London on the back but I can't figure out who's house/apartment we are at. Could be dad's moms or it could be one of dad's brother's houses but I didn't think mom's brothers ever went to Thanksgiving in London and I think the drawings in the back were at one of dad's brothers, but not 100% sure. And once again, more macrame hanging things :p *edit* apparently this was at dad's moms according to mom

Small update today since I had a hospital appointment to get a CT scan on my jaw, (get the results June 4th), and even if the appointment is the middle of the day, somehow nothing really gets done the rest of the day. Not sure why, I think its the time it takes to get there and back and how I don't generally feel like doing anything after, even if its just a scan. It does sometimes suck how little things can leave me absolutely shattered for hours, sometimes days after, but thats just the way it is now. And I just try to get as much done when I don't feel like crap :p

Updated my website and created a Facebook page. Been resisting creating a Facebook page because I didn't think I would remember to update it lol but so far so good. I know the website is plain looking, but I like that. Not a huge fan of flashing graphics and everything just thrown at your face, so I keep my sites as plain as I can.

Took awhile, but finally done and while it is not a very pretty looking bird, I find it an interesting one :) And now onto the next one, either a flower or if I get the plates cut, the horses.

One of my favorite soundtracks :)

This isn't the best Xray of my teeth since I can't really get the little Xray things in my mouth for the usual Xrays, can't even use the small kid ones :p So this was done with the machine the turns around your head to get an Xray. No wonder my face was so swollen when you see how many screws they had to drill in my jaw. Thought it was really neat to see, and yes, I have horrible teeth :p

Feeling pretty proud of myself with this one actually :) Wasn't sure how I was going to do the feathers since they are more like quills than the feathers you see on other birds, but I think its working fine. 

Started on a drawing of Sky :) The background is in pastels, which are very messy and make me sneeze lol This is on fisher 400 paper which as I have said before love but its not cheap :/ So when I buy it, its a bit of a treat to myself :p Going to colour Sky with coloured pencils, namely Derwent Coloursofts. I find they work the best for me on this paper. I would use pastel pencils, but I only have a few and they are not the right colours. Even tho, a red and green collie might look good :)

A bird from 2003, looking a little too wide eyed :p And a French Bulldog puppy from 2004. It was so cute and tiny.

John in his primary 1 school outfit. Dimples :p And he has hair lol So this is like Grade 1, don't have kindergarten here.

Well sort of, this does give you an idea of what your finished engraving/etching will look like and you can print prints of it, but if you want a print right from the plate, and don't have a press you need a lot of elbow grease and a metal spoon. But here is how I get images from my plates right now, (I will build a press still, just really need a bottle jack and a few thick sheets of metal to finish it). This is done with Photoshop, but I would think it would work with most editing software. 1. Scan your plate (mine is clear perspex, clear works best for this). Place a dark or black sheet of paper behind the plate so that your etched lines will show up when scanned, make sure the paper is not on the scanner bed or you will just end up with a black image. You should end up with a scanned image that resembles this: 2. In Photoshop go to Image-Mode-Greyscale . I find that if you don't do this, the background colour tends to get really muddy and almost yellow in further st...

Started on the feathers today :) And then I think its done yay This is def. not one I will try printing by hand, way to big lol my arms would never forgive me.

Oops, swore :p

Slowly getting this done. Think I am done with the wrinkles for now, might add more shading tho once the feathers are finished. And I have been calling these etchings wrongly it seems. They are engravings apparently,learn something every day. *shrugs*

Because I am running out of photos, well photos of me, John's mom has a lot of him I can post, I decided I am going to post old art. Art that is at least 10 years old, should get a laugh or two from seeing how I started drawing :) And I think it will help to show that practice does make a huge difference. A creature design from 2003. I actually want to re-draw this now and then colour it. And a horse from 2004. Pretty sure this was from my head, just a generic draft type horse. Now to find the pile of old sketchbooks :)

I posted another photo from this before but this is us all sitting down. Says 1981 on the back, can't be since I look way older than a year old. Mostly posting because you can see my extra finger :p My mom's dad, me and then mom.

Well, not really, but almost done with the wrinkles. And after I get some more perspex, the next big etching is going to be a bunch of horses :)

Will be up tomorrow since Youtube is taking forever to upload anything for me. Actually I think its my computer, need to have a look at it, probably need to vacuum the vents and get rid of some stuff on it.

So here is a gif of the Cassowary as it stands now. You can see how each section grows as its worked on. I had wanted to have the neck finished by now, but my fingers are killing me. Very painful and my fingernails are really sore to touch so its a little difficult holding an etching tool. Can't even hold a pencil for very long without my fingers really started to ache :/

Two more posters from the province posters I did :) Alberta is pretty flat but there are areas like the above in the badlands, and lots of hoodoos. Hoodoos are cool :D And B.C. Famous for rain and pot smoking. Oh, and the Rockies too.

So, I decided I wanted to create posters for all of the provinces and territories for a few reasons; One to bulk up my portfolio for Uni, and two, just for the hell of it :p Wanted to keep them simple, have either a well known landmark or area associated with the place, and the province/territories flower. Here are 2 of them, still need to finish I think 5 more to get them all done, so will be finishing them over the summer and posting them here :)

Think John is 6/7 months old here? Pudgy cheeks :p And his mom still has that laundry basket, 30+ years later. I think they got their moneys worth out of it :p

Still need to finish shading the crest to try to make it a little less flat looking and then back to all of those wrinkles..yay :p

Normally I don't burnish with CPs as I am not a huge fan of the look,  but thought it might look OK with these flowers, time will tell. Not going foa realistic look, too  many flowers to do that and not take months to do :p And Everyday in May #4