Kittys Drawings

Hi All!
Here is another portrait I did just this week. I thought I’d give the black and white thing a go. Interesting for sure but I think I still love colour more.

Fairly pleased with the result but once again I left it too long.  So the details are lacking in the flowers and stuff. I’m not sure if it’s important or not – should I fiddle with details when I’m really over the piece? Or should I still keep trying to knock things out fairly fast and the detail will come with practice? SO MANY QUESTIONS! Hah!

It’s Nancy Sinatra by the way. Inspiration found via someone else’s inspiration. Thanks go to Strawberry Koi (her blog is most gorgeous and she draws very well!).

I took some more WIPs of the very early stages. The first two are done within a few minutes. Then the rest takes increasingly longer as you tweak each bit. The nose was difficult again.

I think I’m getting the hang of hair a little better. Block in the major shapes like where it breaks from light to dark. Then go over it with lots of brush-strokes using a tiny brush.

Anyways….
The sewing is going swimmingly (heh I love that word!).  I’ve got a red button front pencil dress with a big collar on the go. I just need to buy some interfacing and wait for my buttonholer to arrive from Etsy (pics when I get it cos its KILLER) for all those squillion buttons. Well. 10 buttons. Still a lot. I can’t be bothered doing that many bound buttonholes.

Also – I’ve nearly finished a fantastic pencil skirt. Found a navy linen from the Salvos which was just the right size.  I shan’t babble too much about it yet as I’m only a zipper and a waistband away from finishing so I’ll do a post on it then. Can’t wait to wear it though!

I hope you all don’t mind my sewing rambles. It really is a new found passion which to be honest is really taking over from the drawing at the moment. But I seem to be managing both at a pace that is markedly better than where I was at with my “hobby time” last year.  So expect this to become a half and half blog now – half drawing half sewing!

The sewing thing really couldn’t have come at a better time. I’ve become increasingly disillusioned not only with modern fashion, but even vintage is becoming a more difficult search. I kind of blame Mad Men for bringing the 50′s and 60′s into the limelight again (even though I love the show to death!), thus making it trickier to find quality pieces from that era (without crazy costs).  It’s not like I can’t afford spending $150 on a dress but for that kind of money I could make more than three dresses and have the added satisfaction of creating something instead of just consuming. Not to mention I have full control of the quality of the finished product. Something that can’t be guaranteed when buying ready-to-wear – no matter how much you pay for it.
I am not sold on “luxury” brands.

Okay I’ll leave it for now. More fashion musings when I get that skirt finished.

Til then – seeya!

Hi

So like, Happy New Year and stuff. Hope you all had a good one! I spent it down at the Yarra River for the most of the evening chilling with friends and some cool new peeps. Then came back home before 11pm cos the Mr was knocking off work. We watched the fireworks from just around the corner while eating icecream. Then home to movies and beer. Heh. Not much of a big do but I never place high expectations on NYE – that way, its always guaranteed to be good. This plan has worked nicely for some years now

I had high hopes of wearing my new dress – that I made all by myself but alas, it was not to be – due to dodgy cheap zipper and me being a bit too generous sewing my French seams, thus reducing the waistline of my dress by a good inch…which made things a bit tight…so the zipper broke when I tried it on…
I went through the whole rigmarole of picking apart the bodice and letting out the seams. THEN fixing the stupid busted zipper. But of course, it was beyond repair…tried it on a couple more times and then it went up and then it didn’t and the teeth kept popping out of alignment. GRR.
So now – I just need to get a new zip and then it’s all ready to go.
I couldn’t babble on about this without actually showing you my handiwork…so here it is – not looking that good on a hanger…I blame the print. There’s those nice glass buttons I got from my Vogue KK on there too. And it does fit great now I let the seams out a fraction.
All for $20 worth of fabric and thread. They had a sale on at Lincraft….not the best quality but hey this is still a “test” dress – So I don’t fuck up my pretty Tanya Whelan cotton that’s still making it’s way from the States (hoping my postie isn’t being dodgy AGAIN and not leaving a parcel collection slip in my letterbox).

Also…before the Xmas holidays I managed to score a pack of 10 macarons by Duncan (via Syrup & Tang). I can’t remember all the flavours – I know the purple was a violet one. And there was an extreme passionfruit with poprocks in it. Killer
They were all awesome

Oh and I did some drawing. Heh.
Same chick, different pose. Better execution. Shitty dodgy flowers though *ahem*. Probably about 8 hours total. No WIPS because I did most of it in the first session of about 5 hours. I really should save more progress shots of the initial stages so you can see how I start. No lines. Seriously!

Well – I best be off. Only tomorrow left before I have to go back to work. Blah. Seeyas!

Hi!

I’ve been busy again. Drawing. And sewing. And baking. Took just a few days off work for the Xmas to NYE break…and I’m determined to spend my time being productive. Last year I got myself into a bit of a funk with drawing over the holidays. Not this time! I’ve got a heap of school work to do too.

So here’s the first of my portrait studies. Aiming to get better at drawing faces. This took me about 8 hours in three sessions. Looking at some painting vids online, it looks like I need to streamline my process a bit. Find a more economical way of laying down colour instead of the “blob and blend” method I’m using now.
Then again, I’m pretty happy with the results.

What do you think?

And my two WIP pics – the first one is pretty out there – she looks all alien. I had to leave it for a day and when I came back I could see all that was wrong with it – then it was just a matter of tidying up all those wonky angles to get rid of that underbite! Ha.

Hair is still a tricky one. I should experiment with some different brushes or something. I’m currently using two variations of a pastel brush – one is tapered and the other round extra-soft, with the tapered one used for hair.

Anyways – I’m off to go eat some cheesecake (dark choc & morello cherry) – hope it’s set already. Mmm

Bye!
Oh and Happy Xmas for those that get into that sorta thing

Sup!

I finally have a drawing for you. Which could be more polished but once again I left it too long and by the time I got round to working more on it, I was thoroughly over it. So patchy finish up in the end. It’s not too bad though. I used a photo reference for this instead of a painting reference like the last couple, making all the exaggerations on the figure mine

The purpose of doing all these pinups was to establish a solid working process and build up my confidence with Painter. Which means I need to do them quickly! I want to be able to do something like this in a few hours and be pleased with the result. Then work up to more complex pieces. I’m not sure if my methods will work. I fear having more than one drawing project on the go because I know one, if not more, will be abandoned and then I will never finish anything.
Any artists reading my blog – what do you do? Are you able to work on more than one thing at once and eventually finish everything?
It’s so hard to get over the “I hate it” stage for me. I always make roadblocks for myself – things to stop me from creating something “better”. I wonder if I’ll ever stop feeling like a fraud when it comes to my art. Hmm…It’s like I’m constantly waging war with myself and playing tricks on my own brain via a complicated system of activities which are deemed ‘worthy’ of spending time on and those that are not. And whether I should have any leisure time at all when instead of reading blogs I could(should) be drawing – and then, if what I am drawing is moving along satisfactorily or should I be putting more effort in. Waaa! Can get tiring sometimes – and then what happens, I bludge to put off the inevitable decision ….vicious cycle I tell you.
And that probably made little sense.

Anyways…On to the drawings.

(click to make larger)

WIPS and details:

Next time…I’ll be working on faces. I realise that I’m just not that great at them yet. My refs have been too low-res to really zoom in on the features and make out the specific tones needed. I mean, look at noses – there’s not much to them ‘cept a couple of well placed highlights and shadows. Get them wrong and it’s all off. Plus these eyes are lackluster – and the eyes will make a painting. Eerrrrm so much to learn!
SO – I’ve got tons of portrait refs to choose from in my LittleSnapper. I’ll use one of those.

AND….I’ve finished my first sewing project. If I can con the bf into taking some nice photos, then I’ll do a post. It’s a mint green cotton wrap skirt with big, dark green buttons. I finished it in a weekend – maybe 6 hours total. Even managed to make some nice bound buttonholes – I tell you what they are easier to do than regular buttonholes (using a zigzag stitch). They look really nice too. Yay!
I’ve got some fantastic fabric, buttons and a wonderful pattern all coming in the mail soon – That will be my next project.

Til soon!

Hi everyone!

I thought today I would show you all my house. Since I’m always rabbiting on about how awesome it is and I don’t even have any photos. We moved in last October – renting of course – I could never afford to buy a house like this!
When we walked in we were all “OMG” – I was running around saying “eeeee I LOVE it LOVE it want want want”.
We were mega lucky because the Saturday we went to inspect, it was Grand Final day (massive sporting event “football” for my overseas readers – pah! I have little regard for sport ) so there was no one around. Only two other people came through that day and we managed to schmooze the real estate agent. He even gave us the keys that weekend and told us to show our friends around and come sign the lease on Monday.
So when we went to sign all the papers he tells us that he had over 14 emails asking to come see the property because they were too busy watching “footy” when the open for inspection was. Well – you snooze you lose! Ha!

Onto the tour – Let’s preface this by saying I’m only showing you a fraction of the house. The main bedroom is nowhere near ‘display quality’ as yet and the second bedroom is an utter shambles right now on account of my sewing projects strewn all over the bed.
The rest are the rooms we use most often and a part of the way to being decorated in how we like. All these white walls we constantly need MOAR ART to hang on them.

I’m really not much of a home stylist either so I know there’s all kinds of pics here that could be presented better.

K – I’ve tried to put everything in some semblance of order. The French doors lead out to the courtyard and the window is really high and arched – too high to photograph. It reaches well into the second storey. We have two mezzanine floors above the ground floor Puss likes to sticky-beak and follow me around the house so she’s in quite a few of these photos! The pic on the right is the entryway. There’s a powder-room on the left and the garage on the right. This view looks towards the inside of the building. Picture a big barn with a shared driveway down the middle and all the apartments branching off.  Bamboo floorboards which are nice and quiet compared to hardwood

Boof relaxing (furring) on the couch. That’s his favourite spot and he gets rather upset if you sit in it. The couch set I scored off eBay for $90! Freshly re-upholstered too – great colour. They’re supposed to be Parker …they look it. If they are, then I really really did score a bargain!

Dodgy blurry photo. All these are natural light btw – That’s what I love most about this house – so much light!
Also, the beginnings of our art collection. All from Outre Gallery hehe. We plan to cover both walls eventually. Excuse the vacuum cleaner in the corner *ahem*

The steamer trunk is another eBay find. I won the auction for $150 but the guy dropped his price to $50 after telling us that it had woodworm holes. No matter, it’s great as a coffee table hehe. I really should move that box eh, doesn’t look good there does it.  See – not a stylist at all!
Abstract wooden form there is a piece Dad made and gifted to Jonny

One of our Expedit bookshelves. They’re so handy! Few knick-knacks and models…Playstation….etc

My lovely kitchen. Which is awesome. Except no pantry – see? Kinda annoying. I need to get my butt into gear and design something for dad to build. It needs to be enclosed as that shelf has everything rather precariously balanced. And look – dishwasher!! Been a while since I had a dishwasher before we moved here. I hate doing dishes! Still need to do some of course but its that much more tolerable to have a machine do the majority of the work.

My Ikea stainless steel bench. Another thing this house lacks is bench space. So I “needed” this. Its very handy. Dad made me that chopping block. And the little wooden bowl in the background there that I put sugar in.

From the kitchen to upstairs…. Curious kitty

Random things….Jonny’s collection of “stuff”…on our second Expedit…

Girly art on skateboards…..And my paintings on the right. Sitting on my easel. That Dad made for me. Yes, Dad can pretty much make anything
The stairs leading up to the main bedroom are behind the easel.

My jewelry sitting in a hand-tooled leather bowl I brought back from Hungary. Some paintings Jonny’s friend gave him.

Jonny’s red “man chair” – that Puss really loves to get her claws into. Such a naughty cat!! You can see the top of the rangehood there and the window that leads to the courtyard.

Jonny’s desk. Much more sparse than mine. He doesn’t use his computer – preferring my laptop instead. And he says he’s not a Mac convert. Bull!

My desk. You’ve seen all this before….

That door leads into the second bedroom (with its own bathroom). Bookshelf packed full. No more room for anything! Jonny’s mountain-board which he doesn’t ride all that much.

Aaaand my new sewing area. Yay! I need more storage solutions. Everywhere. I want to hide stuff – begone STUFF!!

So that’s my PAD. I love it. Great place to live even though it’s not quite magazine quality yet. Yes, I want it that way too hehe.

Nowwww – better do some drawing huh?

Seeyas!

Silly season is upon us.

I’ve been going a bit crazy with the sewing….and work is mental….got back from QLD yesterday…Um….not much time for other things. Though I must finish that latest pinup.

So – to tide you all over, here is my annual Xmas card…I usually whip up one of these to use as tags for any gifts that I give.

Til soon, bya!

‘Sup!
Wow look I’m finished!

Once again I got a bit sick of it all towards the end. Really need to get better at drawing faces – however starting with the head is always hard. I find that proportions work easier if I draw the figure first and add the head later….but that means that I’ll leave the face til last and by then I’m usually well over the drawing.
Next time I’ll attempt to block in the majority of the figure first….do the face and THEN finish the rest of the drawing. Hope that works out better. Always something new learnt from doing one of these.

Some work in progress.

So yeh – not entirely happy with the face. Hmm. Thoughts?

Seeyas!