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.