Monday Sketchbook 4/14/14

Monday Sketchbook 4/7/14

Monday Sketchbook 8/5/13

Something a little different - I've been trying to do the 30 day drawing challenge (which has now spread out over 2 years), but I drew my friend Rora in one of her steampunk costumes, and I wanted to share :)

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 :)

Fake Tattoos

A few years ago I was in a show called Talking With (by Jane Martin), which is comprised of a series of female monologues. One of the characters ends up getting a tattoo for every important person or event in her life. Since obviously we couldn't make M go out and get 20 or so tattoos, and since they were much to specific to simply use store bought ones, I ended up drawing them on her. 

All of the tattoos pictured were created using sharpie markers and rubbing alcohol. If you draw simply outlines of color and use rubbing alcohol on a Q-tip to blend, the result is pretty realistic. They also lasted almost an entire week afterwards!

Bird in flight. Copied from a google seearch image. 

Lily. My own design. 

Scythe. My own design. 

Water serpent. Copied from a google search image. 

Orchid. My own design. 

This tattoo was not mentioned in the play, but I designed tattoos for each of the other women in the show. S played "Lamps" and "The Patchwork Girl", so this is her tattoo. My own design. 

Scylla and Charybdis. My own designs.