Doctor Who Art Break

I did not make the shirt; it's just funny because it's true. 

Med school has been seriously cramping my artwork. However, I do find time to do some things (or rather, I MAKE time to do things...."Eh, Neurology can wait. I need to paint!"). Most recently, I've been on a Doctor Who and tea kick, mostly because I need some wibbley-wobbley-timey-wimey fun in  my life, and tea is my hot beverage of choice.

I was inspired by this pinterest pin, and after I found a super cheap blue teapot at Goodwill, I had to make my own.

I just used plain old paint pens - I probably should have used porcelain pens, but I couldn't find any, and since I don't plan on dishwashing this, I figured it would work. I did seal with a coat of ModPodge just be sure.


I used the same paintpens to spruce up my new sketchbook, inspired by Neil Gaiman's speech "Make Good Art".

I plan on making some nerdy teacups to match :)

Dragon in a Sombrero

I just got back from spring break! I went on a cruise to Mexico with a bunch of my classmates. We had a blast, but the most important thing is that I found a teeny sombrero for Durango, which means it's Silly Dragon Dress Up Time!

You can't tell in the photos, but he was PISSED when I took these. The fact that my mother and I were giggling madly (that's her tiny machete, by the way) probably didn't help matters.

And just for kicks, here he is with a giant bottle of blue tequila. If dragons drank, he probably would.

Mardi Gras Mask

A few years ago I was in a bit of a funk around Mardi Gras and decided to go to a blowout Masquerade Mask competition by myself. It was very last minute, so I headed to Joanne's and essentially made my mask in my car with some super glue.

The headpiece I had already made (I added the peacock feathers last minute), but the base mask is just one of the nicer ones from the masquerade section at Joanne's with some stick on jewels and a short piece of home decor trim that I super-glued on the underside.

I ended up winning 1st prize! For anyone else looking for last minute Mardi Gras ideas, don't skip the kids' sections - they have lots of stick on jewels, stickers, feathers, and bows that are very easy to add to base creations and kick them up a notch.

Firefly Dragon

I own a bearded dragon named Durango. I also love the TV show Firefly. How do these things relate?

Simple! When you're making your very own Jayne inspired cunning hat, use the leftover yarn to make one for your pet!

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the species, bearded dragons make great pets. They originate from Australia and come in a variety of colors. If you get them from a reputable breeder and handle them when they are young, they are quite sociable and actually enjoy being handled. I take Durango on car rides, where he sits on the front dash and watches other cars zooming by.

In fact, he is so personable, that he lets me dress him up in costumes of his own.

....

Okay, so this is the part of the handling that he really only just tolerates, but look at that first photo! He's smiling, right?

I am not really a knitter, so both of these hats were made by crochet. I'm sure knitting is easier, and would have resulted in a tighter stitch, but this isn't really too bad for my first go at a hat. Mine took me a few hours to complete (had to backtrack on some stitches and re-look at some tutorials), and Durango's took me about 20 minutes.

On a semi-related soapbox moment, if you own a bearded dragon and let them outside during the summer (mine enjoys basking on driftwood), make sure they don't eat real fireflies, as they are poisonous to beardies!

So, love Firefly, don't eat fireflies :)

Teslacon Teaser

Just got back from Teslacon and am very tired and VERY behind in my studies, but I had a blast! My steampunk sister L and I had a semi-professional photo taken of us in our ballgowns, so I will leave you with that until I can do a full write up.

Halloween 2012

 This year for Halloween I decided to update/revamp my Effie Trinket costume. I managed a pretty good last minute interpretation for when the movie came out, but I really wanted to improve the look and have sometime really fun for medical school.

I started with the wig: I sewed together two different blonde wigs and pinning/curling the random curls to cover up the seam. I found some purple hair spray at Meijers and haphazardly covered the wig - in the movies, Elizabeth Bank's wigs are never fully colored.

I went to Joanne's and bought a bunch of fake flowers, feathers, and the massive butterfly. Most of them already had a pin or clip back, so I just hot glued either safety pins or bobby pins to the few that didn't.

Effie's makeup is always the most fun. To start, I use my palest, heaviest foundation to get a really homogeneous base that juuust borders on weirdly pale. I used this on my eyebrows too - they're naturally black, so they would have looked funny with the blonde wig. I also covered my lips, so I could put the dark lipstick on in a heart shape, rather than my full lips. I broke out all of my pink eyeshadow that I never use and just coated it on, plus some eyeliner.

I was really geeked about the false eyelashes I found at the Icing! They were a little heavier than what I'm used to, but the effect was grand.

For the full costume, I raided goodwill. I found the perfect jacket by chance (look at that crazy floral pattern!), and then found an obnoxiously patterned button down shirt to match. The corset, skirt, and tights I owned. The skirt is actually an old dress that I wore to a wedding once, wasn't too fond of, and hacked off the top to make a rather fun pencil skirt. I added some more fake flowers to the lapel and boom! Effie Trinket.

I had a lot of fun both at school and later handing out candy to trick or treaters. The best part of the day was wearing all this under my lab coat for anatomy - school doesn't stop just for Halloween! While I think medical school would be too squelchy for Effie Trinket, I think she would appreciate how well a fake butterfly looks with a long white lab coat ;)

Lament of the Masked Physician

My freshman year of college I was part of a program called Medical Scholars. At the end of the year, we had to create a presentation that focused on how art could make us a better doctor. I wrote and performed a poem titled "The Lament of the Masked Physician", which looked at all the "masks" a doctor could hide behind: cold scientist, "evil" researcher, god-like creature, superhero, etc. These are the photos I had taken afterwards. 

(photos courtesy of T. Benjamin)

Okay, I cheated a bit. The narrator's mask was an old mask I made for junior prom. 

Doctor as mad scientist. Look at me, I'm mixing water!

Doctor as god-like creature. 

Doctor as super hero.