Christmas Magic- Cardcaptor Sakura

I love to start my holiday spirit on the first of December. And since it's been a while since I last worked on a art piece, let alone posted anything, I finally sat down and worked on something to get me into the holiday spirit. This image is of Sakura flying through the night, with Keroberos carrying Tomoyo not far behind.
I created the Christmas costume (which was inspired by a few Cardcaptor Sakura pictures that I found on the internet) last year and decided to use it as the jumping off point for my first Christmas art piece of this year. This Photoshop image took a day to either find photos in my stock collection or capture new ones. Then I spent another 5 hours composing and playing with effects in Photoshop, to create the final image. I hope everyone is enjoying the start to the holidays.

Happy Halloween

Even though Halloween just ended a little while ago, I wanted show some of my creativity for one of my favourite events of the year. We start off with Mekatt's well wishes.

Views of my decorated front yard at sunset and at night. The set up took about 2 hours and most of the items my family had around the house. For the graves, I piled the fallen tree needles into 8 piles then placed a mixture of statues, wooden crosses and fake tome stones at the head of each pile.

 But my favourite simple decor item was the "Soul Collector". I made this eel-like item by first wrapping newspaper into a wedge-shape. Then I stuck the newspaper into one corner of a plastic shopping bag. Then I taped more shopping bags into a long tail, leaving the handles free and attached it to wedge-like head. Finally I tied some twine to the head and the end of the tail, which allows me to hang it from bushes or trees. This item is really effective in the dark.

Me in my "Steam Era Guy" costume along with my "Morning Mandy" mannequin. "Mandy" is my dressmaker's mannequin fitted with styrofoam head, fabric arms and dressed in different pieces of costumes and fabric. My costume is pretty simple. I just took some of my dressier clothes and combined them together. The jacket was the only that I really altered by trimming the collar and adding lines of a dark brown fabric in certain pattern.

And finally, the community's fireworks display seen from my front yard.

Mekatt's Road Trip

This weekend, a friend and I went on a road trip up Vancouver Island, from Victoria to Nanaimo. On our second day in Nanaimo, we had planned to join some friends for breakfast at a restaurant. The unfortunate part was that we lost sight of our guide to the restaurant and ended up getting really lost. We got too upset trying to make it to the restaurant that we ended up calling it quits and decided to head back to Victoria; especially since it was just about time for lunch and we figured that the friends couldn't wait any longer. But other that mishap, the trip was enjoyable. Though next time we head to a place that we don't really know, I'm getting a printed map of the area, having the locals mark where on the map we desire to go and have the cell phone number of the person that we maybe trying to meet.

Autumn Outfit

I had fun creating a drawing of myself in my autumn outfit. The easy part was the line drawing. It more difficult adding the colour, highlights and shadows. Luckily, doing those parts in Photoshop, I was able to adjust and play with each element without losing any detail. I even played with effects on a few photographs and use them as a background. The line drawing took about 4 hours and the rest of the process took 6 hours.

Mekatt's Weekend

Got to love getting together with friends. Especially when we have something to celebrate. This time it was to celebrate me moving back to the hometown. Now we can get together more often, providing our work schedules will allow it.

Bedroom Design

Well, this week I moved and now it's time for a new look for my bedroom. Of course, to figure that out, I needed to draw the four walls of my room in each view. Since I can't change the positions of the door, window and closet, nor the look of some of my furniture, I decided to sketch out those elements and see if I could figure out a way to make them work together.
I've always been interested in Asian design. So, I pulled some elements from there and used them as accents in a otherwise neutral palette. Those accents are the red pillows, the cherry blossom curtain, and the sphere paper light. For artwork, I plan to build two frames and inside them hang some of my more interesting hats and props. Now that I have a plan, I just have to buy or build the elements that I need.

Under the Field Tree

There is a few farming fields around my parents' home which are always great to sketch or photograph in different seasons. The reason being that they tend to have a single Gary Oak in the middle. Seeing these singled out trees surrounded by fog, flowering daffodils, or freshly tilled earth, almost gives them a mysterious feeling.
Because of that feeling, I decided to sketch myself meeting the mystery-loving character, Conan Edogawa from Detective Conan. Later, I may write this scene into a story. But for now, I'm happy just to have another image of myself with one of my favourite characters.

Autumn Magic

This was a fun project for Photoshop. And it seems that when I go to create a magical image, it usually results in hours of preparation and creation along with many Photoshop layers and effects. But I just love the end result that I can't really complain.
At least for the preparation part, I got my exercise in. When I don't have just the right picture in my collection of past photos, I grab my camera and go for a long walks, which are usually a few hours and kilometers long. For this time, the walk was to find just the right pumpkin and autumn-coloured trees.
As a little treat, I've included a couple of Mekatt's pictures in this post, since they're appropriate for how I felt before and after the preparations.

Autumn Train Station

Even though Autumn officially began a couple of weeks ago, it wasn't until now that I really began to see the Fall colours. And luckily there are Autumn fairs and Halloween events all throughout October, with plenty places around Victoria, BC, to get inspired.
For this picture, I inspired by the artifacts and minature trains found at the Saanich Historical Artifacts Society, and the farm fields near it. I tried to imagine what the old Saanichton train station may have looked like. I first sketched out the scene, then used few colour-washing layers in Photoshop to create a watercolour effect with some clean breaks in the colours.

Thanks for viewing my blog and look forward to the next project.

Introducing Mekatt

I would like to introduce my blog companion, Mekatt. She's quite a vocal cat and through various bubbles, you'll be able to hear her thoughts. Mekatt is actually based off of the various cats I've come in contact with throughout my life. The one cat that kinda spearheaded this character cat was my mother's cat, Billie. Billie is quite a character herself and quite often will demand attention from my mother as soon as my mother walks in the door.
Though Mekatt is basically a tabby-cat, the lines on her forehead run horizontal rather than vertical. This gives her markings like the visual representation of sound waves, which is appropriate for a cat that sounds off her thoughts. I hope you enjoy what Mekatt has to say each week.

Billie, the Inspiration

Oto Waitress

This costume was inspired by the outfit Sakura-hime wore during her stay in the town of Oto in the animated series Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. It was also another costume that I completely built from scratch.  First I built the pleated skirt on my dressmaker's mannequin. It took a bit of time to get the pleats going just the way I wanted them, but once they were set, I stitched the top of them down and added a waistband. Next I made the kimono top. This was rather simple, since I had made a few kimonos previously. The only difference with this one is the embroidery and applicae sleeves. That portion took just as long as building the rest of the costume, but well worth it, since no one that I have met has done that level stitchery in the hobby of cosplay. Next, I made the cross-back apron. I made it so the straps go from top of the front panel, cross over the back, slip through loops at the waist, and then tie in the back. Then I added little capped shoulders and lace or ruffles around the outer edges. The final part of the costume was the hat. I took a wide plastic headband and added a point of lace with a triangle of leather on either side the center in order to stiffen it. Then I added pieces of ribbon with bells at either end to each side of the headband and finally loops of the same ribbon over top. It took me about 3 weeks in my spare time to make this costume and I still enjoy bringing it out for different events.

Setting the Table

This coloured sketch was also started while I was in the hospital last week. I actually created the basic drawing before I created the black and white sketch titled "Before Opening". While the basics were done before I left the hospital, it was only tonight that I sat down do the colouring via Photoshop. It's just experimenting with different ways to colour a picture, but so far, I think that I like the classic pencil crayons the best.

Tea Party

This week's Photoshop image shows a fancy tea party in a springtime garden. I used 8 pictures and a number of special effects to some what blend it all together. This image took about 6 hours to complete. The CLAMP characters that I'm portraying in this, Syaoran and 3 forms of Sakura from Tsubasa Reservior Chronicle and Kobato.

Painted Cake Tray

For this project you'll need:

a ceramic cake tray
cleaning alcohol
a rag
a picture
a ceramic pen
ceramic paints like Folk Art® Enamel™ Paint
clear ceramic glaze
an oven

This project is as easy as you make it, since the difficulty is in the design that you choose. I made this project for my sister being it combined her love of angels and cakes. Once again, I went to Michaels  http://www.michaels.com/ for the supplies.

First thing I did was thoroughly clean the cake tray. First by simple wash in the kitchen sink, then followed by the cleaning alcohol. This is just to make sure the ceramic ink and paints would stick to the surface. Then as I looked at a picture that I created earlier, I careful drew out the design. But if you make a mistake, you can clean off that section with the cleaning alcohol. I did have to do that a couple of times. Then I let the ink dry for the alloted time suggested in the directions on the pen.
Once that time was up, I fill in the picture using the ceramic paints. I used 4 coloured paints; red, white, purple, and gold. To get tints of pink, I mixed together different combinations of red and white. I then took a light pink mixture and added a bit of gold to get a skintone.
After the painting was done, I followed the directions on the paint containers and baked the cake tray to set the paint. I let the tray cool, then covered the tray with ceramic glaze. I went especially thick with the glaze on the top, so that I didn't have to worry about food coming in contact with the surface. Then it was back into the oven for the tray to bake the glaze. After that I let it cool and cure for the recommended time.
The cake tray was well received by sister and friends who saw it. That especially good, since it was my first project using craft ceramics.

Before Opening

What does an artist do when they're in the hospital on a limited diet? Dream about going out to eat, then grab a scrap of paper and draw it out. Well, that's what I did for the past few days after my surgery to remove an organ. But luckily I did have the sense to bring my sketch book and pencils with me. This week's theme of Cafes actually got me to look forward to when I was released, as what type of images I wanted to do.
Today, we start with the black and white sketch of what I thought a cafe may look like. Of course, I featured desserts on the tables, since all that I could think about while drinking tea was "How nice it would be to have a treat with this cup of tea?" This picture was also a chance to do a room setting that I haven't done in black and white for some time. Look forward to tomorrow's project.

Yami Yugi

 This wasn't a hard costume to make. Most of it consisted of a few finds at Value Village that needed some modifications. I did have to make the wig, choker and the Millennium puzzle.
For the puzzle, I first craved a piece of building foam into the basic shape. Then I looked at several screenshots of the Yu-Gi-Oh! series in order to find all the details of the puzzle. Those details, I simply pressed in, using the end of a pencil. The 'Eye of Horus', I created by drawing it out with hot glue. Then I dug out a hole from the top of the puzzle in order to counter-sink a large ring, that was connected to a large chain. I hot glued the ring in place, then covered the connection with masking tape. Once the puzzle was assembled, I covered it with a few coats of gold paint.
The wig was just as tricky. I first sewed a cap and placed it on a styrofoam head. Then I took 5 chopsticks to create the structure for the spikes. Then I took strips of newspaper and glued them in place to fill out the form. Then I painted the form black, and hot glued black and red pieces of wool. For the yellow bangs, I hot glued yellow pieces of wool on a smooth piece of metal. This allowed me to form the wool into the shape that I wanted and easily detach the wool from the metal cleanly. Then it was just simply hot glue them in place.
For conventions, I also add on my duel disk toy and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards to complete the look. After not wearing this costume for a few years, I decided to bring it out for a one day event and I was swamped with people asking for pictures with the character. Always great to have a well known character costume once in a while.

Family Game Night

One favourite memory that I have connected to games is when my family would get together for a card game of Fustration. I wanted to create a black and white picture showcasing this memory, especially  when one of us would catch the rest of the family with full hands.

Yami no Game

This Photoshop project was inspired by episode 163 of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series. Some years back, my friend and I tried to recreate the duel of that episode, while at an anime convention, since she was dressed as Yugi and I was dressed as Yami. On their own, the pictures from that day were not that great, but add in drawings of the monsters, masking and special effects, I was able to finally create the kind of image that both my friend and I wanted. This project took about 6 images and about 6 hours to complete.

Game Box

The main things you'll need for this project is:

a metal box
48 small round magnets
decorative and/ or coloured duct tape
a print-out of a chess board
black and white/silver sharpies

*Majority of the items were purchased from Michaels craft store* www.michaels.com/

First thing that I did was make up a chess board using my drawing program, but can easily do a search on the internet. In either case, the image has to be scaled to fit the size of your lid for the metal box. The lid will become a playing surface for chess or checkers. I held the chess board on with 4 magnets as I cut pieces of tape to fit around the lid. I chose the duct tape for the lid since it was a plain red and act as a frame around the board. Then I used the decorative tape as a border around the box. You can used any pattern   that you want. I found a tape that had different typefaces of the letter 'L', which I thought worked well with my name. Next I laid out the magnets on the board and began painting the tops of half of them with the silver sharpie. These become your chess and checker pieces. Using the same sharpie I wrote the first and last letter on the 8 main black chess pieces. Then I did the same one the silver ones, only with the black sharpie. With that done, all I had to do was fill my new game box with a variety of game pieces; 2 packs of playing cards, dice, a puzzle book, note book and pen (for keeping score during complicated games), and scans of games that I found in the Yu-Gi-Oh manga series. I'll include a few in this post, but for the other games, it's best to check out the series for yourself.

Duel

Ah, a new week starts here on my blog and this week we're looking at games. For this coloured sketch, I decided to have two games of strategy as mirror images of each other. The upside-down one is a game that's been played for centuries, kind of looking down on a modern day game.  The reason for the red in a basically black and white picture, is because the term 'duel' was often refer to a match where the loser would lose their life. In history, there has been many games that had such bloody ends. The games mainly played today are much more tame in some aspects, where the only life lost is a virtual one.

Chiblossom, the Rose Elf

Chiblossom has been one of my more fanciful characters to design and actually construct. I first started by constructing the base dress, by making the skirt selection out of two shades of pink bed sheets attached to a halter top made out swim suit lining. Over the base dress, I sewed on a layer of pink organza that parted in the center and a fluffy pink scarf; both at the bust line. Then I made a detachable decoration for the center of the bust out of a Christmas snowflake and 3 pieces of red cord. At the other end of each cord, I attached a fake rose. I took couple more fluffy pink scarves and made a couple of bracelets and a choker necklace. Each of these got a fake rose and some red cord. The red cord of each bracelet was long enough to clip onto the elf ears; that I made out of craft foam and attached to a metal headband. I chose a white wig to top off costume, since it went with the gradation that was happening with the whole costume, and really made the red cord stand out as the accent colour and vertical lines that I wanted. For the chilly night festival I also wore a white shawl.  In the end, the actual costume turned out differently from my initial sketch. But I don't mind, it's still a nice costume to have. 

 

Avalon Castle

A while back, I created a lantern for the lantern festival in Victoria, BC. That year, my friends and I decided to do a fairy theme, complete with accompanying costumes. But since I was the one who got everyone involved in the festival, they left the design of the lantern to me. The one condition was that it had to be a castle to house the fairies. I researched many designs of castles, but found that all of them were not organic enough to suit a fairy realm. While watching an anime series, I became inspired by one of the building in the background. Combing the look of that building with elements of a flower, I came up with the lantern's design. The lantern was easy to construct, by using a couple of 2 litres, small pop bottles and cardboard for the structure, and the petals were cut from scraps of organza fabric. The whole thing was lit with LED lights.

As for the drawing above, I drew out the lines on paper, scanned it in, then proceeded to colour it in Photoshop (since I wanted the glow and varied colours that I can't achieve by using pencil crayons). Of course, I simplified the design of the castle just for the drawing.

Elven Magic

Here's another magic inspired Photoshop image. I decided to create an image of an elf releasing her magic. I first started by creating the background by using a picture of a rose bush overlaid upon a deep purple. Then I took a picture of myself and blurred it a bit. Then I laid in drawings of butterflies and finished it off with the mist and sparkles. There is about 10 layers and most have some sort of effect on them. It took me about 6 hours to complete this picture.

Rose Tiara

 What you'll need for this project is:

craft lace
braided ribbon
a fake rose
jewels (tones of pinks and purples)
hot glue gun with glue sticks
pins
scissors
styrofoam head

Most of these items you can get at a craft store like Micheals, but I did find the head at Value Village when their Halloween stock comes out.

 First thing I did was wrap the craft lace around the styrofoam head, pinning it in place. Then I cut off the excess lace.

While the lace was pinned in place, I hot glued the braided ribbon along the top of the lace, removing the pins as I went.

Next, I cut off three of the leaves from the fake rose. I glued those in a "T" formation at the front of the tiara. Then I cut off the head of the rose and glued it on top of the leaves. I cut off the last two leaves and glued those on top of the rose head, hiding the base of rose head.

Lastly, I adorned the lace and the rose with jewels that where glued into place.