Kittys Drawings

Hi All!

As you can probably tell by the title of this post, it’s likely going to be about Halloween or dressing up Last week I was at a party, to celebrate Halloween – or more just to dress up, since the holiday isn’t a big deal in Australia really. I’ve only been to a couple of dress up parties and this one I think I put the most effort into, since I made my dress and bought special shoes for the occasion.

So let me tell you about the most awesome skirt in the world.

This is Advance 8064 from a few posts back. I thought it would be perfect for the party and all I had to do was track down some blue gingham. I got lucky at Spotlight in Brunswick and bought the last 2.8m of this. It’s seersucker too! It was only $13 or so. The buttons were $6 for about 8 from the antiques shop up the road.

On making this I realised my pattern was missing the piece for the back facing, and I had to draft it. It wasn’t too tricky to do – I used the back pieces as a guide.

Aren’t princess cuts so awesome? I just love how the way it’s cut gives control to the fall of the skirt. Super flattering.

There’s pockets too!

I didn’t wear this shirt to the party – I had a white vintage one on instead. This one however, is one I made myself. Two sewing projects shown in one hit!! Its Hollywood 1164. It came together quite easily. The hardest thing maybe setting the sleeves. I used a trick from one of my sewing books on how to reduce the ease in the sleeve, as patterns often come with too much and then you’ve got to stuff all this fabric into a small space.
The super easy trick is just this – fold the end of the sleeve cap down as if you were shortening any other part of the sleeve…but only take a little out. Mine was about 1cm total. Then smooth the edges when you’re cutting so you skip the jagged edge thats created from the folding. Hard to explain sorry! If anyone wants to SEE it, I can do a diagram. Just let me know!

Since I have no Toto, I decided to con Puss into being Toto. Here is me stuffing her in my bag
At first she didn’t like it, but then she was okay with it. Then she had enough. Teehee.

My only problem now with this skirt is that it’s SO Dorothy. Does anyone have any ideas on how I could wear this or alter it so I don’t look like Dorothy all the time? I was thinking of swapping out the buttons for some white ones. And not wearing the glitter shoes of course hehe. And maybe even dyeing it – either red to make purple….or maybe even yellow to make green. Ideas???

Now my next post will be ART related. Howzat!? I’m working on a freelance job for someone which has to be finished tonight so I better get back to it!

Ciao!

Hi All!
A super quick one today! The ever so lovely Lorraine over at Not Quite Nigella asked me to do a drawing of her – “Kittyfied” Teehee. Which I am super happy about! This is my initial sketch drawn today in about 15mins. Of course not everything is perfect – it rarely is in my first sketch. But the next step is taking it to digital where I can refine the line work and start the colouring.
I am still contemplating adding her hand (like in the profile photo I am using as reference). What do you think Lorraine?

Anyways signing off for now. Jonny is hassling me to not only cut his hair – but do some more stuff for Cult-of-Pop. Bya!

Welcome to the new blog everyone!

I’m working out stuff at the moment and tweaking lots of things. Expect a few changes to come!

What does everyone think of the new digs?

*le sigh*

I don’t know how everyone does it. I’m struggling to do all the art that I want to do. Never really felt this creative since I was a teenager….But I struggle to find the time. 

Nooo I haven’t forgotten this one
I did this yesterday after work – just about an hour spent doing some of the face and the remaining sleeve. Getting there, slowly.

Funny how I’m never all that happy with it while I’m doing it…but then I take a screen grab and mull it over for a little while and I start to realise it aint so bad after all. I was particularly annoyed with the lips but they kinda look alright. Still have to finish a few things – the nose isn’t done yet and I have to add more depth to the shadow.

Can’t wait to finish this and show you all the completed work And sorry if this is too huge for anyone – please let me know if it is.

Now the kitty has colour! And a frame too, plus a bit of a shadow. I think I quite like this. Still nice and simple. I guess I will have to show SJ now – but I have become quite partial to this little kitty.

Other news – I am heading down to see my parents in Tassie for a WHOLE WEEK in May. Yay! I get to play with my letterpress. I can’t wait to take some photos as well as have a go at using it.

It’s gonna be interesting cos I really don’t have any firm idea of how to work it all. Thankfully, my Heidelberg is auto-feeding and there is little chance of me lopping some fingers off during it’s running. I’ll have Dad to supervise anyway and he’s good with machinery.

I am going to see if I can get some plates made here at work and find some other materials to see if I can do some tests on it. I’ll need some paper and some ink. Does anyone know where I can get some letterpress ink here in Australia? I only need one colour for now and only a very small amount.

Somehow I’ll scrounge together a little business with all this. I don’t have a press name yet or anything (been wracking my brain for ages now) or a solid timeline for when I will start for real…but I’ll get there. I know that my style is more suited to fine art prints and maybe business cards – wedding invites aren’t quite my forte. The line version of this cat is what I hope will be my first ever print. Can’t wait!

I’ve put the little kitty through the Illustrator machine. Ah the wonders of Live Trace. Tweaked a bit of course, to get the lines smooth.

I’m a little bit at a loss as to where to go from here. The line is just so nice I don’t know if I should add colour or text…or….Umm…I dunno! 

Suggestions?