Little Black Marker

This site has been up and running pretty consistently since 2007. That's kind of amazing to me. In all that time, I have not taken the time to explain where the name comes from. Figured now is good a time as any.

the actual LBM in question

During my semester in Rome in college, we spent a lot of time traveling. Go figure. As I was studying German, our class spent a few days of immersion time in Germany. Once of the things I was excited to do was shop at a KaDeWe. It's like a giant department store, but unlike ours in the states its not just clothes, shoes and appliances... Not wanting to come back home with a ton of stuff I got a few small things, in this case, a tiny black permanent marker. I used it throughout my time in Europe and have kept it since then.

While I was in Rome, I started doing short comics based on some of our experiences, both exciting and daily life. I had thought that perhaps I would keep doing them and make it into something, but it never really got off the ground.

I had longer hair then.

I designed myself and tried to get caricatures of the people that I hung out with established.

not sure why this is the answer.

In total there are only about 10 short comics, in various stages of completeness. Figured I would share a few here. Most are inside jokes from our time in Rome.

Joanne and I sunbathing on campus.

the cycle of exhausted study and overwhelmed travel

some girls thought the teachers were hot

our RA was kind of a nut

the famous gelato incident

random d&d story

Looking at these is just another reminder of the progression of skill over time. A lot of time.
Keep working on yourself.

The Ponyo Dress

And now for something a little different.

I keep seeing more people online turning costumes into fashion, by making the recognizable features of pop culture on dresses: The Totoro dress. The Dalek dress. The Nightvale dress. The Marauders Map Dress.

I had the idea for a Ponyo dress. Not her exact outfit, which is easy enough to make (and would make a perfect future kid/mom cosplay set), but the art of Ponyo, or more specifically, the opening credits.
Warning: Long Post Ahead

I could just see the colors and shapes in my mind, flowing around a white A-line skirt. It would be insanely cool to do this kind of thing as a quilt or embroidery, but I do not have those skills.

I bought myself a set of 20 fabric markers from Walmart. I then had to find a reasonably priced white dress. This turned out to be much harder than anticipated. With it being fall when I decided to start looking, white sun dresses were pretty scarce. I had this idea in September 2014 and didn't find a dress until April 2015. I went with an Old Navy eyelet sundress because it was both relatively cheap and lined! I wasn't too thrilled with the eyelet design on the bodice and around the hem, but there was a large smooth area to work on the skirt. Turns out that the edging limited the area I would have to paint and contained my design nicely, so it ended up to be a big benefit.

Putting these scenes all together was a bit tough, so I first sketched out how I wanted it to go on the dress in pencil. I tried to have some large element to focus on, on each side of the dress.

Kind of an idea. Didn't stick to it too close.

After that I slipped a large plastic lap desk between the outer layer and the lining. This way I could stretch the fabric and draw on it with pencil and keep the lining from getting anything on it.

Kind of hard to see the pencil drawing.

After I penciled out the design, I went back over with the black fabric marker. I did it in four sections leaving each area to dry over night before rotating the dress to the next area to outline.

Initial outlining. Can see a little of the pencil up top there.

More of the design outlined.

Once the main outlines for the details were done I had to go back over and add the current lines that flow in all the water areas. In each stage of this I kept getting nervous. I was nervous to mark up a dress in such a permanent way. Then once the pencil was on I was scared to put the ink down. Then once the ink outlines were down and I had gotten used to seeing the design and liking it, I was terrified that adding the current lines would ruin it. I had to add them though, if I was going to be true to the movie.

The back, with current lines.

Now that the dress was fully outlined, it was time to figure out how to color it. The movie has kind of a watercolor look to it, but I had these fine tipped markers. My options were:
a) color in the whole dress like you would normally
b) try to open the markers, get the ink out and paint it on
c) go buy fabric dye and try to paint with that (unfeasible since I wanted to many colors)
d) find some other option for water color painting fabric that is permanent.
e) none of the above

I tried out the normal coloring idea on a scrap piece of white fabric from one of my husbands old cotton dress shirts. Luckily my dress is also cotton. I found that if you draw a line or shape then add a little water to the center and brush it around you can get a pretty passable watercolor look. The trouble is that the colors tended to bleed a lot.

just coloring bled out a lot

Coloring lightly then using a damp brush in the center and letting it bleed to the middle.

When starting on my dress I tried to use as little water as possible since I was worried the black lines would smudge, but since they had plenty of time to dry before I started coloring it in, their bleeding was minimal. Unfortunately controlling how much water went on was tough. I colored shapes that would not touch even if they bled so that they could dry and I could go back over and color new shapes with little fear of the first colors bleeding away or messing up the new colors I was adding on.

no touching for first round of colors

This meant that I could color a few elements, then would have to wait overnight for the areas to dry so I could color more the next day. This made it really slow going, which made me impatient, which made me use to much water.

this will take forever.

starting to come together

Luckily, even though nearly every element bled out a bit, once I started working on the solid background water colors, I was able to make it look a little cleaner around the edges. The watercolor effect started looking really cool once I got larger areas colored too.

getting so close to done

just a little more to go.

I tried to go back into each little element as well to give it a little depth and detail. The islands have a few colors and there are little dots for sand in places. I tried to darken the outlines around each item. Added shadows and shading. Added a sun on the horizon of the water too.

Once that was all done, I went back to the area along the top of the water and added a little blue outline that I blurred into the sky. It helped to transition the dress from the designs and colored areas back into the white of the bust. It was a mess in some places but looked ok I think.

Finished front. 

Finished back.

If you are going to attempt anything like this I recommend starting on the back and working to the front and not the other way around like I did. This means that when I got the hang of coloring on the back towards the end of this project that the back is now nicer than the front in my opinion.

Hanging in front of the window. The light coming through makes it look cool!

The markers are permanent and intended for how I used them, so the colors should stay. This dress should also be washable in color safe soap, but might fade a little. I really don't want to have to wash it more than necessary. So, after letting the finished dress hang and fully dry for several days, I put a few coats of Scotchgard Fabric Protector over the top. That way if I ever sit on anything or drop something on it, I won't have ruined all this work.

This is certainly now one of the longest projects I have worked on and is truly a one-of-a-kind dress. I plan to wear it out to conventions, I think, or Ghibli movies (should there be any more).

Difficulty: Advanced
Time to complete: Concept: September 2014
    Work started May 23, 2015 - finished June 20, 2015, about 65 hours

Starlite: An ACNL Aviary

I have now played too way many hours of AC:NL. At the time of writing this the game informed me that 500 hours is over 21 days straight. Wow. I have no life. Checked again at the one year anniversary and I was up to 600 hrs.

I am also very near to my goal of a town full of different bird characters. I am 9 for 10, with the last being a really flamboyant boy unicorn, who I am growing fond of. Might let him stay and call it a win. - Update on that... let him move to a friends town and almost got a penguin till some $%*& pig moved in onto the middle of one of my paths.

So to celebrate my almost achievement, I thought I would do a town portrait. 

I sketched out the characters in groups, and then put us all together. There is actually quite a bit of interplay that happens between the residents without you even being involved. Frienships form, rumors start, they hang out at each others houses and take walks together. It's there to see, if you look.

So the groups are: Miranda, Friga and Freckles

Me, Gladys and Phoebe

Peck and Joey

And the loner types: Ken, Julian and Avery

Cleaned sketch in Illustrator.

Miranda and Friga are friends because they have fashion and gossip to bond over... They have adopted the rather plain and frumpy Freckles into their midst as a protégé to train... but she's so innocent it never goes anywhere and now they like having her around.

Gladys and Phoebe have been with me from the start. They are my go-to girls.

Peck is the jock in town and thinks himself all that. When Joey moved in he found a "little brother" to protect.

Ken is solid as a rock and kind of the older down to earth resident who wanders around in his own world. He lives off by himself near the campgrounds.

Julian is in his own world of gossip, glitter and glitz. He's probably where Miranda and Friga get their gossip, but spends most of his time in the town square and looking mysterious at Stonehenge where his house was.

Avery is the newest in town. I feel like he could round out the Peck and Joey friendship with his quiet and strong ways, but he also seems like a bit of a loner at the moment. He has problems talking to people so we connected right off the bat.

Maybe I will color this one day... for now... nah. 

2014 Business Cards

I was out and about the other night when an old teacher of mine asked me what I was up to and mentioned that they would love to see some recent art.

Recent Art? I really do not think of myself as an artist anymore. Designer, sure. Creative crocheter? Yeah. Artist, nah.

Sure I've doodled a bit recently. And I am working on some fan art for AC:NL. But nothing frame-able. I feel lately like calling myself that would take away something from the other artists out there who continually work to improve themselves and their art.

That aside, once again I realized that I should have some personal business cards. Or at the very least carry around this custom stamp I had made with my logo and website on it... So I looked up the old art for the business cards I made up in 2010. I never had them printed and it's time for an update anyway.

The old old business card was boring and disjointed I felt. The playing card idea I still like a bit more since it at least looks cohesive on both sides. Sure, I'm not a card dealer, but I do consider the crafty things I do to be play. I am an ace (ha!) at what I do. I also like the limited color scheme of playing cards.

I updated the contact info and my name... since I've gotten married since I made these last. I tried to make it look a little like the box for cards with the patterns and dots and large symbol. I then took a few hours and reworked the playing card art to be a little more relevant and thoughtful.

I shortened my hair, colored it blue, updated my glasses shape. I also changed the outfit a bit. Before I was referencing the strange cloak-like clothes the card characters wear; now it is a layered kimono. I collect them, and love asian culture. The kimono itself has leaves (for the gardening I do) and chibi-totoros, for the obvious reason that I love them and flowers, just cause they are often on kimonos. I changed the waist sash into an obi (not too much of a stretch there). I left the lotus in my hair. I also left the bluebonnets since they are the flower of Texas. I added a wedding ring to my left hand and added a crochet hook to my array of implements in that hand. In case you can't tell those items are: a crochet hook, an art pen/marker, a pencil and a brush.

Making these cards allows me to show off my range of skills. I get to draw the design on paper, and then bring it into Illustrator to get vector lines, then into Photoshop for coloring. I also get to show off my design skills since everything is brought together in inDesign and text and embellishments are added.

So yeah, I'm thinking I will get these printed on glossy cardstock. And if it isn't too much extra, maybe I will have them die cut with rounded corners like real cards instead of the drop shadow effect. :)

UPDATE: Picture of the finished cards. I did get them die cut.

Coraline Fan Art

I follow Laika House on Instagram to get peeks at the upcoming movie Boxtrolls and everything else they work on. As I have expounded before I am fascinated by the handcrafted quality of the work that goes into their movies.

So when I saw a post where they were calling for submissions for Coraline fan art, for the 5th anniversary of it being released, I knew I had to enter. Prize is a pair of the limited edition Nike shoes from the 2009 release which I also tried to win at that time.

the reference picture

the sketch with inks

the finished watercolor

Submission was sent on February 6th... we will see what happens. FINGERS CROSSED

Bonus: Me and my little me.

UPDATE: So the submissions are voted on to win. I dislike that, since it's basically a popularity contest and not a random chance to win now. Oh well, at least I had a good time being inspired to make something fun and got to continue to work on my watercolor skills.

ACNL Doodle

I am sure this joke has been made a thousand times, but since today I actually did get a pyramid out of a tree in my town I wanted to draw it. So sue me. (Please don't.)

Probably should have done the first one, scanned it and used it for the background for the second, but oh well. 

4F pencil, sharpie pen, colored pencils, 30 minutes.

Vintage Animal Crossing

So, you might have noticed I have been playing a lot of Animal Crossing. Well I guess it is at least good for inspiration. Still working on my Blather's crochet, but it coming along slowly since I keep ripping it apart and starting over trying to get the body shape right.

I have created characters for my husband and me (see the last post): Cerulean and Grump. Well I for some reason wanted to draw them together in a formal portrait... Not sure where that urge came from, but like a family thing. So then I started thinking about poses... Both standing? One sitting? So then I thought about famous art... naturally... and thought about the painting American Gothic. I might have to revisit that idea and do another painting, seems fitting for Animal Crossing. Anyway I then thought about old daguerreotypes, because my dad used to collect them. So I found this one in particular which I liked so I based the pose off it.

Decided to watercolor it since I could use the black and white to get the grays and it might be a challenge to work in black and white. It was. Started off with a light gray wash to get the camera lighting kind of idea then started with the blackest parts. Mistake there. It was ok for Cerulean's feather markings, but not for Grump's jacket since then I immediately lost the ability to put in any details since I could not go any darker. I tried to pull some of the black back up with a wet brush and it helped a little. Then I could put down white for the buttons on top and it looked ok. But I lost the pocket so I cheated at the end an used a bit of black ink to crisp up some of the details that I could not paint in.

Overall it took me about an hour to do this. I can't help but think there is a fun idea here. Animal Crossing takes place in real time, so their world could have existed in different time periods... I mean imagine Animal Crossing in the Renaissance! Anyway, it could be fun to do more portraits.

Totoro Tattoo Concepts

I am such a chicken. I don't even have my ears pierced, and yet I have wanted a totoro tattoo for as long as I can remember knowing about them.

Getting a tattoo is kind of a taboo thing for my family. Pretty sure I would get a lot of misery for it, especially since what I want is so "childish". I can just hear the Really?! How old are you? from certain family members...

But, I have a lot of friends with them, and my husband even has one. I have heard a lot of advice too, most of it kind of contradictory. The one piece of advice that I seems to have stuck in my head is that you shouldn't get one unless you have wanted it for at least a year. I guess that is to ensure that your tastes have not changed drastically. (Saw a guy with a Mitt Romney logo tattooed on his head on a TV show the other night.) I guess it might also prevent things like getting a tattoo of someone's name who you are dating, but might not eventually be. I don't have that specific problem... I have wanted it for at least a year now. Easily.

Personally I feel like it would sum up a lot about me. I like art, folklore and myths, make believe, childish things, cartoons, anime, Japan, drawing, coloring, good design, logos, etc. Plus, I can't look at one without smiling... and a reminder to smile constantly being on me might be a good thing, since I don't very often.

There are a lot of decisions to make though. Black and white? That might hurt less since it would be in theory faster. Might also stand out less, draw less attention, plus then it looks like a drawing. Color? If I ever got this done, might as well go whole hog and get the coolest thing. I love the color blue and the totoro I am leaning towards, the Chu Totoro, is blue. Wouldn't he be cute peeking up over the side of my ballet flats? Smiling? Contemplative? Leaf or no? Where to put it? Has to be somewhere I can see it or that defeats the seeing to smile purpose, and if I am going to go through it I want to look at it without a mirror.

Plus I have seen some bad tattoos... I would also need to find an artist with excellent line work, and preferably someone who also loves Ghibli so I know they would try hard to do it right.

Permanence is scary. Maybe I will try sharpie for now.

UPDATE: No I still have not gotten it yet... but I think I've gotten to what I really want for now, by simply changing a small detail. The kind of leaf. Now it is a Gingko leaf. Like my pup. I think it is too big now though so maybe I will have the leaf bend down behind totoro, give it some depth...

Hourly Comics February 1, 2013

Hourly Comics.
So I guess it is always the first of February, and I have seen it the last few years, but this is my first time giving it a go.

Things I have realized:
1. I draw myself slightly differently every time it seems.
2. If I am going to keep doing this I am going to have to work smaller, and less detailed.

While I was at home I bothered to try to block out some panels...

I look a bit like Anne Burrell until I comb my hair.

in case you can't read it, first panel says: you could make a cat out of all the dog hair.

Perspective is hard. Might help if I used some guidelines, but meh.

That German torture art was cool... they also had one showing a witch being dunked in a lake in a cage.

My dog is the best dog. Also, I'm breaking in a pair of hiking boots, so that's good.

Song is: Love Letter to Japan by The Bird and the Bee

These were like I mentioned, done on the floor in a gym and at a bar... My husband's students are all pretty great.

Aaaand back where I started.

Now time for a nap, or I am going to be useless for the baby shower and party later today...

30DC-MG: Day 19: Cyclops

Forgot for a minute this was a monster girls challenge. Oh well. So I started doodling the old cyclops from those movies, then thought about Cyclops the x-man, but then remembered the best cyclops ever, Leela from Futurama.

She doesn't take a lot of crap. I like that.

30DC-MG: Day: 18: Alien

Aliens are another one of those things that I think of as sexless... though I feel like E.T. was probably a guy. Then again that really long limbed thing that came out last in Close Encounters I feel like was maybe a girl. Both generally sexless though...

Anyway, aliens are dumb. Especially if they have issues with water, a la Signs. Oops, guess that's a spoiler, but it's so old I figure that it doesn't matter at this point.

I prefer to think that if we got aliens though, the water hating kind might be good, otherwise we are pretty much doomed.

30DC-MG: Day 17: Robot

Thought about Futrama robots, Chobits, Questionable Content and a lot of the other robots I have seen in stuff. Then I thought about the things I would want in a robot... a companion, able to get on the internet, give me the weather, my to do's, answer basic questions, call my contacts, take photos, record and transmit my voice, be a passable speaker, and then of course be companionable, portable and cute. Pretty much what my iPhone already is, even though I'm still working with the 4th gen.

But that last bit is what I would really want... CUTE. Robot-ish, ya know. Like for real. Android style.

So here is my design for a robot that I would want. Something with limited motor skills. Flash drive full usb connector in chest and storage. Ears are speakers and removable to be headphones too. Super big eyes for capturing photos. The shiny forhead "gem" is a lens for being a mini projector. Face blushes are microphones for voice calls and commands. Body poses like an artists doll to allow stable projection and act as a tripod for the camera features. Tail is mini usb for charging from computer or connecting to peripheral devices. And it is cute. I figure it might not be able to walk but would at least be balanced enough and heavy enough to ride on a shoulder, be attached to a backpack or purse or fit in a large pocket. Size wise then it would be about 8 inches tall.