Meet Floyd!

Illustration class this semester has been quite fun. I haven't done this type of work well... ever that I can think of. I'm learning how to work properly with colored pencils and learn their quirks. It's neat to study reference materials then put them together on paper. This is Floyd, a character I created for my first project.

Some lessons are learned the hard way.

Let us begin with a conditional statement... an "if, then" exercise if you will. The "if, then" statement is depicted below: as you can see, the series of photos clearly states the following:

HUGE FROSTED FUDGE BROWNIE + GEORDIE = EMERGENCY

This is what we experienced in real life around 11:00pm last night. I had a giant frosted brownie from Panera which I was saving because I am sick and cannot taste anything. I had it on the table, a huge mistake on my part, because Geordie's motto is "if there's a will, there's a way" and he takes it to the extreme. I think Daniel and I were apart from him for maybe 15 minutes but that was enough. I discovered after supper that the box containing the brownie was not on the table. I searched in the kitchen... then went to our room. Behold! There lie the box, open, empty and with claw marks on the side. We called Geordie's foster mom who 3-way called the emergency vet clinic who, after hearing the weight of the brownie compared to Geordie's weight said we better get in there QUICK. Our poor little boy had to be made to vomit and was pumped full of several drugs to coat his stomach. They kept him OVERNIGHT to monitor his heart rate and to provide any emergency care he might need if he should seize. Luckily this morning we got the call at about 11:00am saying he could go home. Now he is cuddled up in a blanket on the couch sleeping off a HORRIBLE night.

New bracelets

Here are a couple bracelets I recently finished. This one has bright colors and a bit of a wavy texture because the lavender beads are slightly larger than the others. The next one has an awesome one-of-a-kind clasp that I found at Von's in West Lafayette. I used the confetti pattern with lime, gold, light blue, and lavender.

Both bracelets will be up on Etsy soon. I'm fighting a nasty cold that's really taken all my energy away. Here's my Real Simple (like the magazine) tip: Put your kleenex travel packs in the same drawer/cabinet as your candles and then when you blow your nose it smells really good!

Water Marble Nails

This technique involves layering polish on top of room temp. filtered water, swirling designs with a toothpick, and dipping your nail directly on top. I watched several you tube videos to see how others were doing it. Several people said it's not easy to get good results the first time but this was my first try and I thought it was pretty easy. I used Orly "Goth" and Sally Hensen Xtreme Wear "Mint Sorbet". I used these because I'm not sure what the effect of dipping the brush in water is but I don't want to mess up my OPI. The brush doesn't have to be submerged in water but if you don't get a good drip of polish on the end, you have to touch it to the water. I highly recommend masking your nails using tape as much as possible. It does require cleaning up with polish remover.

I have a couple of new wide-width bracelets coming up on Etsy soon.

Trend Tips Review

Okay so I am officially a believer in the Trend Tips. They lasted without a chip for 4 days! I put them through the tests by washing dishes several times and I didn't hesitate to use my nails to peel labels off bottles at work (something that normal polish chips with). The reviews I'd read said they were a pain to remove and boy, yes they are! Six cotton balls later I had them pretty well off but even had to use a little scraper to get the rest off. So these would be ideal for a vacation or other event that will last a few days and you don't want to worry about touch ups.

Here's what I did next:
This is Essie "School of Hard Rocks" with a topcoat Sephora by OPI: Traffic Stopper Copper.
It's nice because the glitter is in the top coat so you don't have to pile another coat on top of it to seal it in. So far it's held up to 2 days of wear.

OPI Trend Tips

So I bought these yesterday at Sephora because I'd always wanted to try them. They are basically stickers for your nails called "Trend Tips". They are really cute for a special event or night out. Supposedly they are "long lasting", and for those of us to do our nails we know that means we might get 2&1/2 days of wear out of them rather than just 2 days...

They were really a cinch to apply and my nails are small so I actually got 2 uses out of one regular sized strip. I applied it then cut around it and applied the other half to my opposite nail. I was surprised how thin they were. I really don't feel like I'm wearing anything thicker than regular polish. I applied them directly to my natural nail (without base coat) and then I applied Seche top coat just to seal in around them and hopefully prevent wear. The package says to just remove them with polish remover but I've read a couple reviews that say it's not that easy. It took a little longer than applying regular polish just because I hadn't used them before. If you decide to try them make sure you press them down really really good in the corners and fold them over the tip really good. I used a wooden nail stick thing (no idea what it's called) to make sure they were firmly down in the corners. Then I lightly filed DOWN (don't be tempted to go UP with the file because it will pull up the corner) and then I was able to pull off the excess easily.

Anyway, CUTE and we will see how well they last.

Etsy Site Updates

I know I haven't been updating this recently. School/work/life has seemed to get the best of me. I made some updates to my Etsy site so the bracelets on there are available now. If you live local please ignore the shipping charge. I can get it to you. From LEFT to RIGHT:

1. Grey with teal flowers and silver centers, $10... the clasp is getting a little tarnished.

2. Wide peyote stitch, black, pink, lavender, and lime green with gold-colored accents, $20

3. X's not O's (shown on my Etsy site), $15

4. Tourist black and lime (shown on Etsy), $15

5. Tourist plum and gold (shown on Etsy), $15

6. Netted bead, black with lime accents, $10

7. Netted bead, tortoise with gold accents, $10 (It says $15 on Etsy but I need to edit that.)

8. Bailey lavender, black, and clear, SOLD



I know my inventory is slim. I have several projects in the making but aren't finished. Refer to my Etsy site for more accurate coloring. I took this photo in a hurry.

Surrealism Project

This is probably my first attempt at a surreal piece of work. I liked the idea of a water faucet pouring into a large body of water. I decided to explore the idea of a very large solid object becoming liquid. Here I rendered a photo of a train to look like a water droplet. I wanted a burst of color so I included inverted umbrellas dotting the scene. My next major project is a midterm project. Again, I am doing a surreal theme. I have a fairly concrete idea but now the challenge will be to find images to help me create the piece.

The Aged Face

Here you can see briefly the process of creating this projecct. I found the photo of the homeless man from a source of free stock photos. I then arranged my model to sit and dress like the elderly man then I used tools in Photoshop to take pieces of the elderly man's face and place them on my model's face. I lastly added the cracks in the photo as an overlay. Note that one hand is young and the other is old. Also the highlight on the cheek bone of the elderly side makes the face look less full.

Latest Work in Photoshop

Here's the latest project. We needed to turn a photo from today into an antique. This was created in Photoshop using channels and adjustment layers and my very favorite... blending modes. Here is my favorite assignment so far. This is a warhol-inspired portrait of Geordie. We were asked to do a portrait of a human but being inspired by Warhol, who loved his dogs, I thought it was appropriate to do a portrait of the little love of my life, Geordie! This was also created in Photoshop and the photo of Geordie is white. Each layer is a different blending mode. This really shows the different effect of each mode. I used a smart blur for the outline.