Kittys Drawings

Hi All
I’ve been pretty sucky at this blogging bizniss the past few weeks haven’t I? Seriously I’ve been SO busy!!! We’re off to WA for a friends wedding tomorrow morning and the past month I’ve been crazy busy getting prepared. I took on the task of making myself a dress as well as the backdrop for my friends photobooth. Add to that the late hours I do at work and getting home and doing home stuff. BLAH. AND having a social life. It’s all too much really. They don’t call it the silly season for nothing.

Thankfully I will have a break off work in the time between Christmas and New Years. I plan to take full advantage of these days off and do a lot of sewing and drawing and being fairly introverted since most people will be away doing family things. Yay!

So I wont be posting anything this weekend. I do have some sewing to show you though. That I will try to do next week. This post was just to pop in here and say I’m still alive. Also, since I had to take down the RiskCloud post until the launch of the product, your Reader might have stuffed up and you’d have had some broken links…Check it out HERE if you like as it’s back up again. Sorry bout the confusion.

Also, last weekend I was super busy – especially on Sunday….
My friend Sally Goodall is quite the up and coming photographer. We met when her and her now husband moved in next door to us when we lived in a studio apartment in Richmond. Sal needed help setting up her computer and Jonny was there to lend a hand. Sal was keen on becoming a photographer and was going through school at the time. Jonny lent her some of his gear and we went on a few shoots together and now Sal is working full time shooting mostly weddings and portraits. She’s come such a long way in a really short amount of time and it’s really great fun working with her. On Sunday we went out to do a vintage wedding shoot out in Inverleigh (near Geelong), on an amazing property. I borrowed a dress from the ever lovely Nicole @ Circa Vintage and we had another ‘bride’ and our model ‘husband’ (lucky boy – LOL). We were out frolicking in sunshine and long grass all day and I really can’t wait to see the pics when they’re done. I will definitely be posting them here for you to see.

ANYWAYS.

I better go finish packing, eat, clean, all that stuff.

To tide you over til my next post, here’s a picture of the BoofMonster, doing what he does best – nothing.

Ta ta for now!

Hi!!

Weeeee so the dress is here and it fits awesome! Love it so much! I want so many of the Trashy Diva designs.

Also, this dress confirms that a few of the fabrics I have picked up at Savers are rayon or rayon blends as they feel very similar.

Upon close examination, this isn’t a dress that I could copy in a hurry. Lots of bits and pieces that are beyond my current skill level. Like all the tucks around the waist, the gathers and the collar that fit into that piece down the middle and the bustle.

What do you think of my photos? I dug up some Photoshop actions from the web that give a bit of a ‘vintage’ look. I ought to learn how to do this myself. Technically, I know how to do it….I just don’t know when to stop haha.

So this was meant to be a sewing post. But I might do that later….maybe some time during the week or something.

On the drawing front, I’m still pottering away on my big piece. I’ve started a bunch of practice exercises suggested in THIS post on Muddy Colors (cool drawing blog found via CA). They’re definitely not worthwhile posting here just yet but once they start looking okay I will show you.

(that’s Boof in the midst of a patting frenzy – he gets very excited when getting pats and runs around frantically in circles and occasionally throws himself down on the ground with a big “whump”, paws in the air)

Umm – that’s about it. I’m off to go see Harry Potter this evening. Yay!

Seeyas!

Hi All

Yay I have a sewing post for you!

I am so behind. But this is the only thing I’ve been fairly pleased with since I made the charcoal version of this skirt.

I made some adjustments to the pattern, most of which were successful but I still have some things to learn!

Here is what I did:

• Moved the front darts in closer together.
• Shortened the final length by maybe an inch. I did this by folding the pattern in two places – one inch near the hip and one just above the kick-pleat.
• Narrowed the hips
• Gave it a tinier bit more of a ‘wiggle’ shape
• Lengthened the strip I used for the waistband so there is more of an overlap for securing the skirt. I used a largish snap fastener and a hook and eye designed for pants and skirts (so its quite a bit bigger than the tiny ones you get on dresses).

Puss squirming in my arms - look at those paws!

There’s a few things I think still need tweaking. Both to do with my sewing skills and with fitting:

• I went a bit crazy with narrowing the hip and I think that’s why the skirt bunches at my waist. It’s annoying how much the final fit changes once you put the waistband in!
• Instead of taking so much out of the hip, I should have taken that wiggle shape thing further and narrowed the bottom of the skirt more so it cuts in closer to my knees. I really want a wiggle skirt!
• I could still learn a bit about tidying up finishes around the closures. I’m getting better at the hand sewing and this one is fairly neat but could be neater.

That's Boofy mid meow "Mowowowoowwowwwww" he says

I really love this pattern – even though it’s only the bottom of a dress pattern. It’s so quick to make and looks pretty good. I like the length a lot – just at the knee. A fraction more flattering than just above the knee.
I find that skirts that hit above the knee tend to throw out the proportions of an outfit. With a blouse and high-waist skirt combo, the skirt needs to be proportionately longer than the blouse section. Roughly the Golden Mean It’s just more pleasing to the eye hehee.

I can't get over his expressions - always priceless!

Hmm – what else… ah yes, the fabric. This is an awesome, thick khaki cotton I found at the Salvos. There’s tons of it left and I shall one day hope to make a blazer for this one too. Or I will turn the remainder into a wiggle dress. Maybe I have enough for both (there’s heaps!).
I underlined it with some white sheet. The same as I used for the pastel striped dress. The zipper is brown and so is the hem tape I used. Not that you see that but it makes me feel a little calmer knowing the insides coordinate. It’s the same kind of happiness a girl gets from knowing she’s wearing some nice frillies under her dress

Oooh cheeky!

Haha.

ANYWAY – Time to wrap it up. I have so much more to say about sewing than about drawing! Art speaks for itself a little better ….

So I also have some fun stuff…
Tomorrow I will post another GIVEAWAY! Just a mini one! My blog is no way going to turn into an ad machine, but I received some skincare products to sample as part of a promo company I’ve signed up to. Cos I like free stuff. Who doesn’t like free stuff!? They gave me a whole bunch of decent sized samples with the encouragement to give them to friends. So why not share the lurrrve? More details to come

Ciao peeps and enjoy your weekend!

Hi All

Slackie blogger is back. Been a bit of a hectic week here at home and also we’ve been SHAPED. How can that be when we’ve got a 70/70GB download limit??? Well I’m sure downloading 50 or so gigs of files won’t help *ahem*…so I’m posting in those rare few hours of awake-ness before 12pm on a weekend ehehe.

This week’s life drawing we were focusing on the head and how we shouldn’t treat it any differently to how we draw the rest of the body. It can be hard trying to draw a face quickly while disassociating yourself from the fact it’s a face and trying to get all the features accurate. We were told not to aim for a likeness, just DRAW.
And draw I did

So here’s the results…A bit blah but I like the last one. Usual mix of quick warm ups, contours and then the longer poses at the end.

And this time Boof wanted to check out what was going on. This photo is better of the drawing too – less blurry! I SUCK at photography ehehe.

A few sketches from the train today. Not trying to be realistic because I can’t really sit staring at people too long. So these are drawn with only a quick glance to try and capture as much in my memory as possible, and then draw what I can.

A kid, some crows and a guy at one of the stations with a backpack. I’m not sure if he actually had a backpack – I only got to look as the train was pulling into the station and he got on a carriage behind me….I was more interested in his pose and his clothes. He looked kind of beat!

And this, drawn last night as my beautiful kitty Boof was sleeping. It’s great to have a living creature that I can draw from life! And he’s just too adorable when he sleeps – his face was all mooshed into the couch. Awwwww.
This took about 20 minutes.

Trying to be a bit more considerate with my lines. And build tone with lots of light strokes instead of fewer heavy ones. Probably best for all that fur too!
Oh man it is SO much easier drawing from life instead of a photo!!! I thought it was meant to be the other way round….but somehow I can understand the form better when I see it in 3D in front of me.

Sooooo…..in other news…..The boyfriend is working Saturday night again. I think I will continue my binge of Mad Men episodes. THE OUTFITS! Holy Cow. And maybe I will squeeze some drawing in. Oh and make some tiramisu….got a craving! Hehe.
Till then!
Bye!