Christmas Stockings

Christmas stockings are one of those things that everyone seems to have, but most are so impersonal it seems. I've had our blank red and white stockings from Walmart on hand for a while now with the intent to customize them with felt... but I never seem to get around to it. This week I decided to change that.

I bought different sheets of felt at the same time as the stockings, so when unpacking my Christmas decorations it was all right there.

I had initially thought to use embroidery thread and sew the felt down, but as that would take more skill and time than I currently had, I reached for the Fabri-tac glue. This stuff is amazing for felt and yarn.

I had ideas in mind already: Lovecraft-y tentacles for the hubby and a christmas Totoro for myself.
I sketched out the shape of the stocking on some old sheets of packing paper and then drew out the design I liked in the space. Then I cut out the template shapes onto the felt and cut out the felt shapes. After about two hours I had most of the large pieces and details cut, with more time for all those tentacle dots.

You might notice that the totoro in the picture above has an embossed pattern in the gray. I decided I didn't like how it looked and simply flipped the shape over and use the plain back.

This whole project was fairly quick and simple, and the certainly look much less boring on the wall now.

Of course I could go back and add embroidery in the future too...

Time to complete: 5 hours + drying time
Difficulty: Easy

Husband won't go with you to A-kon? Make Good Art.

Today's title is a reference to Neil Gaiman's recent speech to a group of students graduating from a school of the arts... Haven't heard it? STOP RIGHT NOW AND CLICK THIS LINK! Seriously, if you are an artist in any way, you should hear this.



Now that that is taken care of, A-kon was this weekend. With blue hair, naturally I wanted to dress in a way that might just be recognized by other nerds at the con. First thought was to get streaks added to my blue hair and go as Vinyl Scratch aka DJ P0n-3 (saw 3). But I couldn't seem to find a white shirt that wasn't see-through to paint her cutie mark on. Next thought was Ami Mizuno aka Sailor Mercury (saw 1) But I'm not sure I could manage to pull her off without just getting a sailor scout uniform.

Next thought was summertime Coraline. The idea was to use this fairly recognizable outfit but "summertime" it. I made myself a dragonfly hairclip like she wears.

Got a blue tank top and tried to add white stars like her sweater with fabric paint. Thought I might string the button eyes I have on a string around my neck to add a bit more emphasis on the movie, though I think her looking stone would work equally well. A blue jean skirt and some blue sandals would complete the look. It would be less cosplay and more fashion-inspired-by. At least I feel like I could wear it everyday and no one would be the wiser. HOWEVER, the white stars never came out white and my bleach pen attempts there-after turned out pink. So that was scratched as well.

In the end it was just blue hair, a comfy shirt and skirt, my vibrams, my con bag, and my backup costume: the pipe fox from xxxHolic. Maybe next time I can find some Chobit ears and just pretend to be a persocom.

The Con Bag Before

Items on con bag: Mouse from Spirited Away, Rainbow Dash, BPRD patch, Angel Beats patch, Kodama from Princess Mononoke, Pins: handmade round metal pin that looked kind of like a kodama head, Ravenclaw, Pisces, Kissyface, Innsmouth is for Lovers, Mrs. Auditore, Grand Caymans, Dr. Cat, Japanese Temple, Monorail Cat, True Dungeon 2010, Pirates of the Caribbean medallion. (To be added: Fifth Element patch)

The Con Bag After

New Items Added: Ouran Host Club Patch, Pins: Totoro, Flameo Hotman, We Do the Weird Stuff, fat Rainbow Dash, Sailor Mercury and Symbol, Pabu the Fire ferret, Mr. Toast, Its the Quenchiest, Marceline the Vampire Queen, Appa, Haruhi from Ouran Host Club, Mokona, and Be the Leaf with Tenzin's son Meelo from Legend of Korra

Agent Sonar

Lana Jackson.

That name is not known to any of my fellow players in my husbands Cthulhu campaign. Instead she is Agent Sonar. But hey, even a half-human-deep one hybrid needs a vacation now and then. Just a quick painting in photoshop. Wanted to play with getting a scaled look to her skin. I am slowly discovering the use of layers and more layers to get an overall effect. Plus it makes going back and changing her freckles an easy thing when they are not drawn in the same layer as her camouflage stripes.

Here is a previous painting I did for my entry into the campaign. Agent Sonar serves as a diving instructor to the other players for now. Cool things to note: Because she is assigned to most missions in water, she has special weapons as a result: two H&K P11 underwater pistols and a modified spear gun. She has webbed hands and toes, the ability to withstand pressure to a certain depth, the ability to breathe both water and air, increased hearing underwater and bulgey-fish eyes with nictating membranes. Fun! 

For Tor.com part 2

for Tor.com

Deep One

Deep One
Etching
Spring 2006

So my boyfriend found this picture of the occult god Cthulhu and asked me to make a print after it. So I did. I altered the pose just a little and made two plates, one with the line drawing and one with the watery bubbles, it was after the learning experience with the Black Eye, so I tried to use the multiple etching process to get different lighter and darker shades to my advantage. So, for example, the eye is not a different color but simply deeper etched.