Little sketches

Physio on my shoulder is going well, the nerves are less pinched, which means I am doing silly little sketches again as rehab.

Nothing spectacular, seriously, it still hurts to hold a pen/pencil longer than 10-20 minutes, but here are a few little sketches I spun out and gave a quick colouring job in Photoshop.

I don't know why, but when I'm doodling, it's usually odd little critters/beasts that come out... I think the fire dog-thingy is kinda cute :) He reminds me a bit of a French Bulldog. No idea what the dragon-morphing thing coming out of the cloud is, I was just randomly making curling shapes at the end of the wave that turned into a cloud that turned into... rain that turned into... a beastie. Yeah, no thought at all behind that one ;)

The green & yellow floral thing was a fast/simple design that I may want to put on baby-gift-related something-or-other in the future.

The green singer/castle/wave was sketched after I wrote this little bit of flash fiction and considered (for 5 minutes) of making a short graphic comic/story out of it. I still might, one day.

The mouse... yeah, y'know when I was playing around with creating designs for (potentially) an interactive/app-type kids book? I've got a rough script for a mouse story in my head as well, essentially two mice 'fighting' each other with imagination.

Anyways, nothing I spent a lot of time on, but it's nice to hold a pencil again (for short spurts), even if my control still sucks too much to even consider picking up a paint brush :)

...good thing this old soccer injury/pinched-nerve thing doesn't affect typing skills or I would be absolutely insane by now with zero creative outlets...

Synesthetic Artist

Wow, I stumbled across this interesting artist a few days ago...

A quick definition via the Free Dictionary:

syn·es·the·sia

 also syn·aes·the·sia  (sĭn′ĭs-thē′zhə)

n.

1. A condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearingof a sound produces the visualization of a color.

2. A sensation felt in one part of the body as a result of stimulus applied to another, as in referredpain.

3. The description of one kind of sense impression by using words that normally describe another.

So, this artist paints the colours she sees while listening to music.

Check out her site, not all are to my personal taste, but I would certainly love to hang a few of these on my wall...

Triangular ceramic box

Was over visiting a family friend's place recently, and saw this:

It's something I made in university. After I fulfilled all the requirements for my Honours Degree, I needed (essentially) 2 more classes worth of electives. So, I took a condensed ceramics class in the summer, partially because I've done all kinds of ceramics work before so it would be easy, and partially because it's a heck of a lot of fun, and after packing my schedule to complete my degree in just under 1.5 years, I figured my final class/credits should be enjoyable :)

The project requirement was to make a slab box, which means rolling (with a special roller) out thin sheets of clay, cutting them into geometric shapes, and scoring/wetting the edges to build a box. Generally this works best when you use 90 degree angles

Every person in the class built a square/rectangular box, maybe 2 or 3 put a lid on theirs.

Since I'm never satisfied (well, let's me honest... it's that I'm not interested) in boring/status quo things like that, I built this odd little triangular box/dish which is wider on the top than it is on the bottom (so, no 90 degree angles were used) and sculpted a fancy little handle for the lid.

 The lid sits in place on three extruding triangular pieces, so air is meant to get inside.

...and because I do like making things look nice, I angled the points so it fits softer in place, and pressed three triangular impressions on the 'feet' of the lid and also inlaid them with glaze.


It was kind of fun/nostalgic to see this sitting out on display, and nice to know she liked/likes it enough to keep it out.


I know I've got more pieces, but they're in boxes, tucked away to survive the next time I move.

Really cool reflective cups/saucers

Since Alcar, my longest writing buddy, sent me this link (watch the video, seriously), I'm sort of taking it as a challenge... (even though I'm positive those geometric designs are decals, not hand-painted)...

...to make my own...

(ignore the hideous tablecloth -> it's simply to protect the table)

Step #1:

...we'll see how step #2 goes tomorrow...

I haven't decided whether to paint the saucer with lustres or with regular paint... hmmmm... will sleep on it. Measuring and drawing on the design took about 2 hours because, like the piggy bank that I painted a 10 point lotus on, measuring for a 14 point design is pretty darn hard.

I need to stop quadrupling the work, especially when I'm only playing around/experimenting with something new.

...my life would be easier if I wasn't my own worst enemy...

Amazingly fantastic porcelain beasts

I'm definitely anti-clutter, anti-knick-knack, and anti-anything-that-requires-dusting, but these little guys make me want to re-evaluate my position on the matter. Here are pics of a couple of my favourites :)