New drawing for twitter.

My new image for my twitter header background. This was originally a sketch I made for a character profile for one of my animations. It was a little too quirky for what I wanted, but I still liked it.

Want to see it in action? follow the link. =)

x

I got bored...

               ...so I decorated my watch! 

                                                      ...as you do.



My pink watch was getting a bit plain and boring so, I decided what a better way to spend my time then making it look pretty! Here's how I went about it. 

I began by making a template for both of the straps with my decided material. I used decoupage, which it seems i'm getting quite obsessed with as of late. It's easy and versatile to use and if any mistakes are made you can easily go back and correct it.  


Here's a video that will give you a bit more information on decoupaging... 







Next I simply applied it to the strap, trimmed the edges so it was still ergonomic, and boom, decorated watch! 

                                                                      x 



 

My Showreel!

Unfortunately blogger doesn't seem to like my video for uploading.  So here's a link instead! 
                                            www.vimeo.com

                               And a few screen grabs to wet your apatite. 
                                                                x

Christmas is over...

...so now I can show you how I made some of my christmas presents!

There has been a delay, I wont deny this. Life, is all I can say. (Otherwise I'd have to kill you. =p)  But it is now safe to put up the contents of the presents above.  My friends and relatives know what there presents are, so there's no need to be afraid that their Christmas's or Chrismaka's being ruined.

This year (now more like last year) I decided to make pretty much all of my Christmas presents. 'How thoughtful'; you may think, and yes quite right, it was. But also a fair bit cheaper then my last years Christmas.

 I HAD photographed the whole process of making these presents, but for all my searching I can't seem to find them! (Which is highly frustrating) 

                                   Let us begin with Emma's present...

Every gal' should have her own little secret place where her little treasures can go. A love letter, a key to their diary or a photograph of someone spesh', who knows. Emma didn't have one of these anywhere! Trust me I looked. So I decided to make her a book with a secret compartment just for her. 



Alas there are (unless I find them..somewhere) no progress pictures, which is my favourite thing about creative websites. To see how someone got from A to B is part of the fun. So i apologise for that. 

1. I began by carving out the pages, glueing them together and then lining the inside with felt. I used a glue gun for this for its strength, i didn't want it falling apart at the foundations. 
2. I dip-dyed my inner page using ink and water. There is a special ink that probably allows you to get a stronger effect, but for my purposes, ordanary ink worked just fine. I also used sparkly gold ink just for that extra touch.      Once dry, I attached the page between the cover and hole. Then I put a little a little message to my friend using indian ink and quill. 
3. Decorative floral decoupage was then glued to the inner cover of the book to finish off the inside. 

   The outside was a little simpler.
I chose a book where most of the decoration had been done for me. With this, all I had to do was...

1. Glue a button on to the front, again with the glue gun for the strength. 
2. I attached cord from the back to the front to wrap around the button like a clasp. I hid the attachment with a folded, decorative mettle piece bought at my local bead shop. This can be seen on the bottom image to the left, just on the edge of the book. 
3. For further decoration and to make the spine stronger, I attached some thick boarder material to help hold it in place. 

In addition to this  present, I also painted/collaged a picture onto canvas. 

 
If you have been to my Pintress page, then you will know the kind of technique this was derived from. 

1. I chose a picture of Emma and I, printed it out, used glue to stick it faces' down on to the canvas. 
2. After this was dry I rubbed off the paper with finger and water. This left a reversed  print  on the picture. 
3. My next steps were to fill in the canvas by using an assortment of different materials, including: Pencils, water colour paint, pens; silver and gold, and whatever else took my fancy. 
4. To get the text  print  on there, I used the same method as the picture. But only recent printed text would work. Old book paper or such like materials wont work.

And there you have it. Next!

Aimee ... 

Now, my friend Aimee loves to read. Oh boy oh boy can she read! I've seen her

 finish three books in a day... now I don't know about you, but that a lot for me. So I made her, her very own unique sign to tell people to 'go away' when she reading. 

My main aim in this was to burn the detail and paint in the rest. I used a simple ply-wood board bought at my local wood shot. (In fact it was sold in a scrap bulk costing just 50p. Yahtzee ! ) 

1. I began by drawing out my design on paper. Once I was happy with this, I traced my design with carbonated paper onto my board. 
2. With the outline marked, I started to burn my design down. I used my Pyrography burning tool and since this was my first time, I had allot of fun using all of the different nibs.                                                                                      Words of caution, be careful, this stuff is hot. Use a pair of pliers to change your nibs! 
3. Next came the paint. Once of my favourite things to do. I used water colour here as I really liked the texture of the wood coming through.     Lots of water was used to help the paint really soak in. As I painted I also kept  dabbing the paint so it didn't over power the piece.
4. Finally I highlighted sections of the picture with bold colour pens. This helped to really pop the image. 
5. And last but not least, I attached a chain to the back so it can hang. 

And vuala! 

So who's next? Well, my other good friend Hayley received one of those wonderful portraits in the same style as Emmas. 
 
However ,with Hayley's picture
 I also had a bit of fun and burnt in a Latin word to symbolise our friendship into a mini easel that went with the gift. 

To the left here you can see a little of what i had intended for the progress pictures. =) 

And last but not least, amungst other little knick-knacks, I sculpted this Green mans face for my Ma's garden. I used terracotta mimic clay, I thought this would be best suited to the garden. I have to say though it does still need treating. 

1. I began by choosing some reference pictures for the type of face I wanted to make. Reference pics' are very important because it's quite easy to get carried away when sculpting and forget what you originally wanted.   With these by my side I set to sculpting the main  face shape. 
2. I then gauged out sockets for the eyes and layed down the balls of clay for the basic eye shape. I did the same for the nose and check bones. A very important factor for this face. 
3.  I began shaping and carving out my details. I also went ahead and shaped out some ivy-like leaves for around the head. I scored where I wanted to attach them and did so.
4. When nearly done, I went in through the mouth and pulled out the bulk of the inside. This allowed it to dry quicker, and I think makes it more like an out door sculpture piece. 
5. Finally, I added some final detail. Attached a chain in the back for it to hang on, and boom. Christmas done. 

So that was my build up to Christmas. I had lots of fun making these, and I thank my blessings I didn't have many more people to get for. 

To all, I hope you all liked your presents! 

Same again this year?  lol ;p

DeNi
xxx