A little gift

Today I finally set to work making the gift for the gift exchange at my main job. It took about half an hour to design and assemble all the parts, then another couple of hours to make it by hand. But it turned out really cute!

Starting a new project

The time has to create a piece of art as a Christmas present. This year's recipient is one of my closest friends. It has been over a year or two since she started a hobby known as hard live action role play, or harping for short and has developed quite a character. For Christmas, she told me that she would like a fire inspired painting as a gift from me. So, I thought what better centre piece of the work than that of the fiery alter ego of hers. Now that the character is drawn, the real fun begins. 

Asked back

A couple of weeks ago, I recieved an email from the Saanich Fair with a special message. I've been asked back! I have entered many times before, but this was the first time that I have been asked back. Since then, I have been working out what I might show along balancing 2 jobs, 1 freelance job and a volunteer position. It hasn't been easy, but I can now see my artistic pursues paying off. Now I'll treat you to a preview of a work in progress.

Correcting a Mistake

A week ago, I met with my newest clients, the Pet Lovers Rescue in order to finalize the details of their business card. They also informed me that the cards in a week. Meaning the design to the printers (Vistaprint) that night.

In the rush, I ended up mistyping one of contact information. This wasn't realized until I received the cards from the printers. In an effort to correct this mistake, I took white return labels and with InDesign program, I spaced two set of contact info onto each label. I had thought about making the labels fade into the card, but the plain white and black ink looked just fine to the client.

Theatrical Sewing

For the past month, I've been helping out a friend with a little dilemma that she's been having. Her musical theatre class ran into a problem when they couldn't rent costumes for their production. In an effort to make sure that her class had costumes, my friend went out and bought material & patterns. But the people that agreed to do the sewing, ended up dropping out. I got word from my friend's sister that she was desperate for sewers and agreed to take on a few. I doubt that she realized that I'd be doing them all by hand at first, but she knows now and is quite impressed. Anyway here are the costumes for 'Once Upon A Mattress', the king & two princes. To let you know, the buckles on all three are old broaches that I was planning on getting rid of anyway, but they work well in this application.

A Creative Experiment

About a couple of weeks ago, I took on a little challenge of doing a writing experiment in addition to the two paying jobs and three volunteer jobs that I already had on my plate. The first week went fine, with me able to deticate the minimum one hour to writing each morning. But come the second week, I had a hard time doing even the minimum. The reason was that my schedule got changed slightly and my body needed just a little extra sleep than the 6 hours that I was giving it. And so that one hour turned into half an hour, not necessarily first thing in the morning. The experiment is only to last a month, but view of this set back, I may do it for longer. Especially if I want to write a novel length story. But a suggestion to those who want to do an experiment like this. First look at what is already on your plate and the timeline needed for that. Also know your priorities. How does writing fit in with the priorities that you already have. I know that if I had thought about it more, instead of jumping in like I normally do, then I properly would not have taken the experiment on, since I was pretty loaded up already.

Wedding Invite Finalized

The bride & groom were excited with the final invite design. In fact, the bride couldn't stop looking it. As of today, I just sent it to the printers & it should arrive in time for the happy couple to address them & send them off. I was happy that they love the design.

Blending in @ the Con

When at an Anime convention, a person tends to stand out more in normal everyday clothes then those in costume. The reason for this is because Anime & costume conventions where you are encouraged to be someone else for a time. This weekend, my friend & I took in one at the university of Victoria called Tsukino Con. While there was anime, we didn't watch any. We took in some panels, did some shopping in the dealers hall, watched some anime music videos & took part in an amateur tea ceremony. Here's just some pics from the event.

Artistically packed morning

It is amazing how packed one morning, let alone one day can get. The morning started off with my Toastmaster club meeting, where I was one of the speakers. The meeting went fine, though I did stumble a bit through the edited form of Steve Jobs 2005 commencement address. After the meeting, I met with other members of the planning commity for the club's anniversary party to finalize the details. Then it was off to do some graphic work for both the party and my friend's wedding, before I started my shift at my paid job. After work, I sat down to finish a costume commission and more graphic work before heading to bed.

Wedding invites 2

A bit of time today was spent designing the interiors of the wedding invites that I am doing up for a friend. Depending on which invite the bride & groom choose, then I will design the rest of the graphic items to match.

Preparing for Toastmasters

My creativity is not just in illustrative form. Sometimes, my creativity takes the form of the public speaking practiced at my Toastmasters club, Norvic. Currently I am working on a Toastmasters advanced manual called Interpretive Reading, where I go through 5 projects to help me illustrate and properly present points written by others, whether the points take the form of a story, a report, or a speech developed by professional speech writers.

The project that I am working on is the final one in this manual, the Oratorical Speech. Here I must choose a famous speech to present, and use all of my skills to bring the speech to life. Upon first reading of the project, I thought that I might do Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream", mainly just because I liked the title. But after reading the actual speech, I felt no real connection to it, and thus I felt that I couldn't do the speech justice. I needed to look at many different speeches and find the one that I felt the strongest connection. That one turned out to be Steve Job's Commencement Address to the 2005 Stanford graduates. I was in love with his message, and since the project never said that I had to choose a speech from way back in the past, I decided to go with the one by Steve Jobs. All I have to do is edit the speech to fit within the time restrictions of the Toastmasters project. And that was my bit of creativity today.

Invite Designing

Well, today was spent creating 3 wedding invite designs. Each has a different feel, but they all include symbols of the bride's & groom's religious faiths. I am happy with how they turned out & I'm another step to my presentation to the happy couple.

Logo designing

Tonight, I spent some time in polishing 3 logo designs for a friend. The requirements were the initials T & S, colours red & black, & a diamond. From my initial sketches, I chose 3 ideas that I wanted to expand on in Adobe Illustrator. As you can see, I did make use of the gradient function to create a jewel effect of the diamond and an illuminating effect in the letters. I hope that my friend likes what I have created so far.

Mini Pet Photo Shoot

As I was getting dressed this morning, my mother's dog took a chance to hop into my bed. I thought "If you're going to play beneath the covers, I might as well snap some pictures for Mom." So what was a bit of playtime for the dog, turned into a bit photo shoot for me. The photos properly won't end up on Getty, but I might find a site that would take these small images.

I can't help myself

I really can't help it if I happen to see my cat, Cinnamon in a cute position. I have to grab my nearest camera and snap a shot. This morning I happened to see her snuggled up in a chair that she had not slept in before. I quickly grabbed my cell phone, snapped a few shots, and took the best one into Instagram for a bit of adjustment. Instagram is a great little app for improving and sharing photos online. I mainly share with my followers on Instagram & Facebook, but you can share your photos on 5 other sites that are easily connected with this app. Below you can see the difference the app has done to my photo of Cinnamon. Not only is it cropped better, but the warm tones have been brought out more.

Fun with movies

On Friday the 17th, I presented & recorded a short play at my toastmasters club meeting. It was part of a project in one of the advanced manuals and was my first attempt at portraying 5 characters. If I had given myself more time, it could have gone better.

In any case, I wanted to start recording my club speeches and make them into mini movies. And what better speech to turn into a movie then my first one-woman play. It took just over 4 hours to arrange with music, transitions, & titles, but I'm happy with the results.

But next project, I'll be much more prepared in both speech and equipment. No more shooting with cell phone.

Just some Fine Tuning

I spent some time working with Photoshop today, just putting together the shield design for a friend's wedding gift. The only change that my friend wanted, was to add the Arabic symbol for her last name onto the Venus symbol that I had designed for her side of the shield. It took a bit of searching, but I eventually found it. Other than a bit of fine tuning, I sort of like how it came out.

Drawing from inspiration

Sometimes, I see artwork from another artist & wonder what it might look like with another central figure. Tonight, I decided to see what fan created vocaloid, Mikuo would look like in a pose inspired by CLAMP's Syaoran from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. On the right is the inspiration, on the left is my sketch of Mikuo.

Another creative tool

If you like collecting ideas electronically and want to organize them a little easier, then Pinterest is a great tool for you. I tend to my searching on the go, so I use the Mobil app on my cell phone. At first, I was just playing with it, but now I am using it to plan projects & events.

A bit of a Fan

I have to admit that I love the work of creators of graphic novels. Not only can they create such interesting looking characters, but amazing stories too. One of my favourites is the creator of Detective Conan, Aoyama Gosho. I have even started writing a fan fiction introducing a character based off of me. In fact, it is from this character that I created my profile pic from. Here's a rough draft of a page from the fan fiction comic that I am planning out.

Playing with Symbols

As I looked at a couple of video games, I noticed some symbols that kept appearing in each game. I wondered what it would be like to combine the symbols into one image for each game.

Now I'll let everyone guess which two games that I am depicting.

Video planning

I have been thinking of creating a video to place on YouTube, in order to showcase my artwork for some time. I wanted to create a video that was more than just a slideshow. It had to also tell a story and push my skills to another level. Keeping the story element in mind, I've been going though music that could be played in the background. I found one piece that I really feel that it fits the story that I want to tell. But since it is some else's work, I've taken note of all the people involved in that piece of music and who I might have to ask permission from in order to use it, as well as give credit to.

Nail experiment

I tried a little experiment with my nails this morning. Instead of removing the remaining chipped polish from my nails, I decided to put a semi clear of another colour over the chipped. The effect was quite striking. Similar to what I had seen in different crystals or in a slightly cloudy sky at the break of dawn. 

Shields rough drafts

It was nice to have some time to just sit back & draw. Thanks to my day off, I was able to really plan out not 1, but 2 family shields. One is a belated gift for a couple that tied the knot last month. The other is for a couple that just announced their engagement within the last couple of weeks. I know these shields will be quite something when done. At least for now, I have the plans and the pieces to create them.

Creative partner

I have a little partner who either helps or hinders my projects. She is a great model for my photography, because she is graceful and slowly moves, allowing me to easily capture her. But when it comes to my drawing or sewing projects, she lays right on top, as the case tonight.

New Project Research

Sometimes when I'm planning out a project, especially if it is for a certain reciepant, I like to find inspirations first. These range from styles, meanings, colours and layouts, all which will help me in development of my piece. The images you see currently are for a gift that I'm planning for a dear friend who has a special event in her future.

A little down time...

Well, I had a little down time at my job, so I decided to practice drawing flower petals in ink. These are great to have in stock for my digital collages, especially images that I want to create romantic or dream- like. And they do say Practice Makes Perfect.

New Year plan

On the first day of 2014, I am going start posting anything creative that I am doing each day, no matter how unfinished the project or just raw ideas for future project. I realize that people are just as interested in the process an artist may take as well as the finished piece. I hope that this will bring in more interest in my art and the style that I am developing. Here's a look at the first concept of the year.