Thursday Art Walk

 

TFW you accidentally ruin a fairly good piece
by trying too hard...

I was trying for a fun color study today, using different crosshatches of different colors from my big box of 72 Arteza watercolor pencils. 71 colors (because I accidentally got 2 Turquoises and haven't had the brain to go through and figure out which color they replaced with the spare Turquoise) hatched chaotically across a page of watercolor sketchbook paper later, I got the bright idea to try some blending.

So you guys know what happens when you blend multiple colors from differnt areas of the color wheel together, right?

Yeah. It went from a riot of desaturated, sketchy color to a muddy sprawl of shades of greige (that awful gray/beige tone) and unwell taupes.

It, in short, sucked. A lot.

So I had to start over a few hours ago when I'd finished the pencil art yesterday like a good blogger.

Oh boy did I have a better idea!

"Rainbun"; watercolor & Micron brush pen on watercolor sketchpad; 2023
[ANIMAL]

I really, really love how the outlines came out on this one, and the shadow actually looks pretty decent too! All told, I'm pretty pleased with this image.

Eventually I'll try to scan it, but for now, I think that's a fairly decent photo! It's just slightly brighter in real life than it is in the picture, but I think it gets itself across well enough.

If you'd like a say in what I draw for next week, feel free to shoot me a donation over on my Ko-Fi account with a message telling me what category (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Food, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, Word)

Tonight is a sleepy night - I only got about 6 hours of sleep total and night before last was a bad sleep night too. It's really damp and muggy in my house, but I don't really dare to take my fan out of my window since we really need the ventilation. The moisture keeps me clammy, which is gross as heck.

As sleepy as tonight is, though, I still crave reading and writing and art.

I'll go until I fall asleep, I think, and forgive myself if I wake up late.

For now, I'm going to watch videos and relax with a book.

Go Enjoy Something,

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which This Week is Heavy

So. My father has COVID.

I live with my parents.

Thus, I am currently in Quarantine, hoping I don't catch it.

It'll be hard to tell - my allergies are awful lately (the damp really aggravates them), and hand sanitizer/cleaning supplies make my sinuses itch & ache, so uh... yeah. Not gonna be fun.

We're taking precautions - Clorox everywhere, hand sanitizer, masks, hand-washing, ventilation (despite the rain) - but man, could we, collectively, catch a break, here?

I've got friends down with the 'Rona, my dad's down with it, my mom and I are doing our best to avoid it, and I don't get to hang out with my partner this week, which makes sense but sucks, and all of this is not fun at all.

I'm trying to stay upbeat and trying to keep my mind occupied. I have crochet, Tears of the Kingdom, books, art...

And I should be fine. Vaxxed to the gills, taking precautions, avoiding standing too close to people.

If I can, I think I'll go outside tomorrow. I might be able to sneak in some outside time between thunderstorms.

Besides brief forays outside, my plans for tomorrow include... art, really. I have some ideas I'd like to try out - some are fanart (not all Zelda-related, believe it or not), and some are just ideas I've had. We'll see. Optimally, I'll get some sleep tonight and wake up refreshed enough to paint like crazy. Maybe I'll even be able to finish some really good ones and scan them!

Maybe nothing will get done - maybe I'll stare at blank pages and wish for better luck.

I'll probably paint though.

Regardless, you'll hear from me on Thursday with *something* to post.

And if I finish my art in a way I'm satisfied with, I'm going to read, dammit.

And write. I've been neglecting both since May.

For now, I'm just very sleepy (I did not sleep well last night because of the thunder, rain, and sticky air). I hope I sleep well tonight - it'd be nice if my brain would politely slip into dreamsville on command lol.

With how much I've been crocheting, I'll have the 2nd leaf finished for next Monday, plus I could even get the pouches themselves finished... that's probably overambitious, though, so I'll just aim for leaves lol.

I might also make a leaf crown for myself (or a leaf necklace...), and I am still trying to figure out my Shoulder Dragon concept...

I'll post whatever crochet I do next Monday, then I'll give you life updates next Tuesday.

Tonight is for silly videos and snooziness.

Tomorrow is for art.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which A Breakthrough Has Been Made!

I have been agonizing for the last few weeks over what I should do about having some sort of skirt or side-guards for my Ren-Faire costume. I've tried using motifs from an umbrella design, artfully connected filet crochet, straight up lace panels, building an entire skirt from scratch, etc.

But this week I cracked the code!

Leaves.

I just want a bunch of leaves.

Well, not just a bunch of leaves, I'm not PricklyAlpaca...

I want to make thigh pouches with leaf flaps.

Why this specific combo? Well, I'm going to be wearing a very dark green tunic with some dark red embroidery, and I'll be wearing this tunic (which doesn't quite cover my back pasture as it were) with a pair of tan jeggings I've had for years.

Jeggings, especially for rotund persons such as myself, do not generally have functional pockets. I will be wandering about with friends in September and will need at least one hand free to grip my partner's hand like an excited toddler holding a juice box. The other hand will likely be occupied with any purchases and/or water. Thus I need a place to store my valuables - phone, wallet, keys, etc (I'll need my keys because they have a bottle opener on them, and if we find any fun sodas anywhere, I'd like to be prepared).

But I also want a 2nd pouch for rocks and/or other fun things I find.

So I'll need 2 leaves + 2 pouches. The pouches will be a little narrower than each leaf, but longer, and each will be probably an inch or two deep. Since the pouches themselves will (presumably) be simple rectangular shapes, I'm not going to look for a pattern for them. Also finding a pattern that would match the leaf pattern would be a pain, so yeah. Homebrew, baby.

Now, what I needed for this week was an actual leaf pattern, so I set out looking for one. I found it here, from Sylwia SzB on Ravelry and Robootkomania. I used the leftover red thread from the interminable and on-hiatus mushroom bag I was working on last year (yikes has it been that long?!), a Boye size 7 steel hook (maybe 1.75mm?! I legitimately do not know), and a lot of elbow grease and worked up my first of two leaves:

And yes, it is fairly small, all things considered.
That's a laptop keyboard, so do with that what you will.

The color is a much darker red in person, but it is what it is, when it comes to photography. There's a reason I don't call myself a photographer.

Regardless, the leaf is about the size of my tiny hand (I'm told I have very stubby hands), which means that I'd be able to shove my hand in any pouch that it flops over to shut. I'll probably add a loop to the tip of the leaf to act as a button hole.

As for the pouch itself, I'm thinking I'll use the excessive amount of white thread I have. It's easy to find and relatively affordable by comparison to the colored threads. I'd love to find a way to dye the thread dark brown, so I might look at what I have available to do a natural, non-toxic dye bath. If worst comes to it, I'll just have ridiculous white pouches. Next worst: see which watercolors will stain the thread without leaching.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to having these pouches done... because after the actual pouches themselves, I'm gonna have to figure out how to get them to stay on me. I'm reasonably sure I can figure it out before September.

Even though it's already almost July some-freaking-how.

When I finish the leaf pouches, I'll get someone to take pics of me wearing them.

Hopefully those'll get posted before the trip lol!

As for tonight, I've got a second leaf to whip up and some pouches to plan. Do I want them to be three piece patterns or five? (front+back+flap all in one with two sides or front, back+flap, two sides, and a bottom?) We'll see.

I hope everyone else's crochet plans are going well!

And I hope you all...

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which It's Fanart Again lol
(And yes, there are mild spoilers for Tears of the Kingdom)

Okay, so today was gonna be some cool digital art but... I'm nowhere near done. I'm about 5% done, in fact. Maybe 7% max. This is a big project, since I'm crafting it pixel by pixel, and it's gonna take a long time. There's a reason that the file name is "da big wun" lol.

And I'm maybe playing a little too much Tears of the Kingdom for things to be good for me.

My initial backup plan was to draw you guys a couple Light Dragon shots - namely a funny perspective shot and then a copy of The Epic Moment of Awesomeness where you get the Master Sword. Seriously, that's such a freaking incredible moment, and I've never felt more like a truly legendary hero in a video game than in that one scene. If you know, you know. If you don't, and you don't mind spoilers, look up the cutscene where you get the Master Sword. It's super cool.

I cannot for the life of me draw the Light Dragon.

So I opted for something a little... simpler.

See, down in the Depths, you'll sometimes spot piles of rocks with ghostly figures standing on them. Each of these spectral people are holding a pristine weapon that goes with their race. Hylian Soldiers will hold regular Hylian weapons - Traveler's Swords, Royal Weapons, etc. Gerudo Warriors will hold Gerudo weapons. Gorons will hold Goron weapons. While I haven't seen any Rito, I'd imagine they'd hold things like Feathered Edges and Throwing Spears.

There are also Zora, who of course hold Zora Spears, Zora Longswords, etc.

I love the weird top-heavy design of the Zora. They have short legs and long arms, and you can tell they're Not Human At All, but they've still got enough human shape to seem friendly.

That friendliness is far less apparent in the Depths, because they have no faces.

Still, those pristine weapons are very nice.

So I drew one of those lonely spirits, holding their Spear, waiting for Link...

Probably scaring the life out of the Yiga who can't see them.

"The Depths"; pen & colored pencil sketch; 2023
[FANART]

I'd love to redo this picture in Krita at some point. I like the idea of it, much like I enjoy the design for the spirits. It's too hard to get the white outline with colored pencil, even having white gel pens, and I just managed to color over it when I tried to leave it open.

That being said, I'd also really like to keep practicing the Light Dragon, and I may even try to do something about the other three wandering Dragons at some point.

For now, though, I'm going to go find some trouble. If I'm very careful, I might be able to take down a Gleeok with my current armors...

And I do still have a lot of work to do on that digital piece.

I hope you guys are having good Art Days!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

(PS: The Something this week is The Moment from TOTK that I was talking about earlier, so uh, Spoilers Ahoy)

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which My Energy Has Been Sapped

I went for a walk today. I went for a much longer and warmer walk on Friday, but I walked today, too. It was probably about 3/4 mile round trip, had some hills, and it wore me right out.

Sure, I'll be the first to admit, I'm out of shape, but I'm more tired from today's 3/4 mile walk than I was after Friday's 3.5 mile walk in hot sun. I had to drink three whole bottles of water on Friday, whereas two small glasses satisfied me today. I was sore on Saturday, sure, but I wasn't still tired. Today I'm tired. And it all hit at once about three hours ago. 

I was working on some crochet (which, yes, I flaked on yesterday) when all of a sudden my whole body felt soft and slumped like it usually does when I finally start feeling sleepy around 1AM. It was 5PM. It was not bed time. My mind didn't feel sleepy, either. Strange.

None of my muscles are sore. I don't feel sick, nor do I feel like I'm getting sick. I'm just tired. This is not ideal.

I wanted to read tonight.

I wanted to finish this owl panel I'm working on (not sure what for, just yet).

I wanted to sketch something for Thursday.

I wanted to write more.

What I'll do instead is lie on my back with my laptop balanced on my knees, shoulders & neck propped up by comfy pillows. I'll pour myself a big bottle of water. I'll watch videos with the sound low. I'll do as little as possible until I feel sleep call me, at which point I'll simply obey.

Maybe it's the weather? It's been unusually gray and damp for June. I wore a flannel shirt today, which has been impossible in previous years at this point.

Whatever it is, I'm just going to have to wait til tomorrow to work on art, writing, reading, etc. And that's okay.

What I cannot do now, I will do later. That is life.

Regardless, I do have plans for Thursday's blog, so we'll see how far I get!

And Who knows what next Monday will hold?

If you have any requests for Thursday, don't forget to send me a coffee over on Ko-Fi along with a message telling me which category (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Food, Geometric, Word) you'd like to see, and I'll get it done!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which The Best Laid Plans are Often Laid on by my Cat...

I've been working on a couple of pieces lately, and they're going really well, it's just... my cat, you see. She thinks it's a good time to lay on me. All the time.

Yesterday, 90% of my Working time was taken up with Mandatory Cuddles, and they absolutely are mandatory. You wouldn't think an 8lb cat could push a laptop off of someone's lap, but she can and will if she wants those cuddles.

Today at least she decided to sleep on my pillow instead of invade my personal space.

That being said, I couldn't finish either Da Big One (a 4200x4800 pixel piece) or Button Study (which is made on a button template that I had to finagle hardcore because I do not own any form of Photoshop and of course Threadless only offers templates in psd. Thankfully Krita opens that format, but I can't really use Krita for pixel art the way I do it, so uh... finagling). Too much cat, too little work.

Instead, I managed to sketch a little wandering Korok for you guys!

"I Need To Find My Friend!"; colored pencil & ink on sketch paper; 2023
[VEGETABLE? ANIMAL? (what even are Koroks...)]

Here's a lil guy trying to go on an adventure just like the Hero! It's even easier for Koroks, because most monsters and people cannot see them, and therefor, they cannot harm them.

Obviously Koroks can't get hurt.

Look what all these psychopaths are doing to Koroks in Tears of the Kingdom.

I could never! I honestly feel bad when I accidentally let them roll down a hill. Do I almost always deliver them in the longest, most difficult manner possible? Yes. Do I still do it as gently as I can? Absolutely. They're just little guys who don't get why you're disappointed by their rewards. Yes, a giant golden poo is... not a great reward, but my guess is they know you're gonna get a garden and think you could use the "seeds" as fertilizer.

This does however make me wonder if Mineru can attach a Korok onto her back? I doubt it. You can't Fuse them, after all. The meat arrow Recall trick only works because you Ultrahand the Korok to the meat arrow before you recall it...

Of course, future me now wants to draw Mineru with a Korok in a baby sling because I am ridiculous.

Yeah, it's the Big Thing for me lately, Tears of the Kingdom. I'm sure most of you who've been playing have already kicked Ganondorf in his Dragmires several times already, but I'm 1) a coward who is too scared to go into the depths and sweaty-palms their way through the Sky Islands, 2) fighting drift in both sticks now (Link, please stop WALKING INTO THE CHASM I DON'T WANT TO GO IN THERE), and 3) exploring my heart out in all these familiar-yet-utterly-changed places! Seriously, it's such a different world from Breath of the Wild. It feels way bigger than BoTW, just on the surface!

So yeah, that's been my week. I hope you guys are all having a good art week!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which Today Was... Not That Productive...
Yes Because of Video Games

I'm gonna come right out and say I'm avoiding the Depths, specifically the Minshi Woods Chasm. Yeah, I'm at that point in the game. The reasons are many - I'm afraid of the dark, I don't want to fight the Gloom Hands, my controller drift makes using flying or driving devices really annoying, etc - but honestly, I just wanted to have some more fun in the overworld. Clearing monster camps? Super fun. Teaming up with the Monster Control Squad? A blast. Hunting critters for parts so I can have chonky armor? Delightful. I need more fireproof lizards. I drank most of them not realizing that Goron City doesn't catch you on fire anymore.

Now that I've given you an update on my Tears of The Kingdom progress I've got another confession to make:

I did not draw, paint, crochet, cook, or watch wrestling today. I haven't written. I haven't read.

I barely feel awake, and it's only 8:30pm.

Maybe I'm not at my best.

I am, however, going to be spending tomorrow doing a lot of things besides playing TotK. I plan to go for a walk, despite the mugginess we anticipate. I plan to draw. I plan to paint. I plan to add a few rungs to the belt, though as I continue, I begin to realize that maybe this is not the waistband I should use. I'm beginning to wonder if I should instead just go with a more traditional style of skirt or just make a pair of flaps since I don't really need a full on skirt.

I'll still try to finish that waistband - it can be used for another skirt another time, but I might try other patterns. We'll see.

In art news, the 2-in-1 is back up and running again (or it was yesterday). We replaced the battery (again) so it should be okay.

So if you have any Requests for me, send them as a message along with a coffee on Ko-Fi telling me what category you'd like to see - Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Location, Food, Dedbert, Geometric, or Word - and I'll work on it for Thursday!

I am going to watch some vids and go to bed soon.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I did make progress
In Spite of Video Games...

You might remember that a couple of weeks ago I was working on a waistband for a skirt I'm planning to make. This has... not gone as quickly as I'd hoped. I haven't even made it 25% of the way on the waistband itself.

It's still pretty big, though!

Yup. That's the reason it's been so hard to make big progress.

I'll be real with you, most of my time has been spent excitedly trying to fight hinoxes (waaaay easier than BOTW) and Lynels (harder, but that's 99% because of my stupid drift problems), escorting Koroks (it's very amusing to me to just... drag them around, no devices, no flying, no torture, just carrying them with Ultrahand). I have been, in short, slacking off where crochet is concerned. I'm also having Project Scatter.

Project Scatter is what happens when my brain goes "yeah, this is a project you need to finish... but what if you did like 6 other things at once?"

Needless to say, my brain is a bit sparky this week, and I've been struggling to focus.

Hopefully next week, I'll have at least half the band finished and some idea of what I want the actual skirt itself to look like. Because yeah. I have no idea what this thing will look like.

It won't even be white... eventually. I think.

I don't know what color it should be, though...

And boy do I have a lot of work to do.

Regardless, I'll do my best, and hopefully it'll get done before I head to the Ren Faire in September.

For now, I hope you're all doing alright and making headway on your own projects.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

Oh yeah I have a blog...

So yes, I completely flaked this week on blogging. I'm fine - not sick or even all that exhausted. I was just playing too much Tears of the Kingdom to get anything done, like a dweeb. Before anyone asks, I am absolutely not going to hurt the Koroks on purpose. I get why people are annoyed with the lil dudes, but I'm not gonna magic up a rotisserie machine to torment them. They just wanna find their awkwardly located friends.

I do totally Ultrahand them and walk them over to their bros when possible. I find it hilarious to walk past NPCs who cannot see the Koroks because they're probably wondering why Link, the Hero of Hyrule, the Princess's Appointed Night, He Who Wields The Sword of Evil's Bane and who crushed the Calamity, is wandering Hyrule with his right hand in the air, eyes trained on an invisible point. Is he seeking Zelda? Has he gone mad? Is he secretly a Yiga spy? What is going on there?!

Anywho, yeah, I haven't got much work done.

But my most consistent Requester sent me a Request via Ko-Fi asking me to draw some Food (a new category), so I did succeed (after a loooooot of trial and error, believe me) in painting something fun in Krita!

"Taco Time"; Digital art; 2023
[FOOD]

I'm really proud of how this taco came out. I'm still figuring out how to use copy/paste, how to use layers, how to combine brushes and colors, etc, and this, I think, shows how far I've come!

Yes, it's a taco with lettuce & tomato. I just wanted to experiment with multiple ways to paint tomato slices, and yes, the beef is absolutely coated with cheese, but I think it looks tasty, don't you?

Now, this almost didn't happen because that fresh battery we popped in my 2-in-1? It was throwing errors. Dell's horrible obsession with OEM-only part compatibility really bit me in the butt. We had to pop the battery out and close it back up empty.

And my regular laptop was also out of commission, because it was very very sick, so I couldn't even throw on Krita on my main laptop with my XP Pen! My main laptop started randomly freezing and refusing to work. When we finally got around to troubleshooting the first thing my dad & I noticed was that my battery was starting to bloat - major bad news. That wasn't the cause of the freezing, though, because it was still freezing without the battery in it at all. In the end, my dad had me switch my hard drive into his old E7450. It's the exact same laptop as mine, but it doesn't have a crack on the side, the mouse buttons aren't jiggly, it's not full of my hair (yet), and the touchpad's matte finish has worn off in spots.

Also it hasn't frozen since the Swap.

We're waiting on a new battery for the 2-in-1 I use for art, but it still works when it's plugged in, so that's how I spent last night and this afternoon - painting a taco in Krita!

That's enough from me, I think.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Have Done Some Art!

This week I received a Ko-Fi Request for a picture of Dedbert!

"Dedbert Afternoon"; watercolor brush pen and watercolor pencil on sketch; 2023
[DEDBERT, FOOD]

The weather turning warmer means that not only do I crave things like boba (yes that's the wrong straw, but you try getting a wide straw into your beak and see how that works lol), but the camper is now being opened up to be checked for leaks and prepped for the camping season.

For those not in the know, my dad has a cute lil pop-up camper that he restored during COVID. He basically had to rebuild the thing from chassis to roof, even getting new canvases so that it wouldn't smell musty and leak like a sieve. It is now a great place to retreat to, when it's set up in the yard. He uses it as an office when he's fixing things and knows he'll need a rest after. I use it as a studio when the tv downstairs is too loud.

So the other day, the camper was open, and I was looking for a place to get out of the sun and the breeze without sacrificing all of the natural light. I succeeded in banging out a very small piece while munching on a Sweet Chili Dorito flavored meat stick and sipping at a Cherry Coke I'd picked up on my earlier walk.

"Floral" watercolor on paper; 2023
[VEGETABLE, ANIMAL]

"Floral", here, is a watercolor sketch. I put down no lines, I did not linger over any single facet of the piece. The whole thing took about 15 minutes total. Much of my art is made in a similar way. I don't tend to give myself a lot of time to paint because my brain still thinks that art is not something I should be doing, there are... stupid reasons for that. I struggle to value my creative endeavors because people don't tend to be happy with me when I tell them "yes, that can be yours, but I'd like some money first", and I... really want people to like me.

Yeah. It's taken a lot for me to get to the "oh, I can offer my art as a service!" stage.

Anywho, let's talk more about "Floral"!

Do I know the names of all the flowers I painted? Nope. I know that three of them are real, but the blue and yellow one is wholly invented, based off of the pansies my mom picked up. The light purple fluff flower is supposed to be a thistle, the yellow fluff is supposed to be a dandelion. I know the red one is a real plant I just can't remember the name.

If you want to have a say in what I draw or paint next week, please feel free to make a Request via Ko-Fi or hire me for a Commission. All info is in the link sidebar, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have for me!

For now, I'm going to go eat dinner, play some Tears of the Kingdom (I've just finished hunting down the Fierce Deity set, built a house to accommodate the Sword of the Fierce Deity, and I'm tracking down the Tingle Set now lol), and maybe make some decaf while settling in for a YouTube binge with Z!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC