Thursday Art Walk 319

In Which I Experiment More With Paint.Net

So a few things:

1. Today is very gray and grody. Ech. Not my cuppa...
2. Coffee tastes great
3. The Monoprice For Kids tablet I have is not compatible with the software and computer I'm using, so I 'm in the market for an inexpensive tablet. I may have found one, but I'll look up more reviews...
4. I think I kinda like playing with layers and transparency in Paint.net
5. I like dinosaurs.

So without further ado, allow me to show you the fruits of my stupid labor: Dinorar

Dinorar base sketch; digital; 2020

Dinorar progress; digital; 2020

Dinorar!; digital; 2020

Yes, his toes are a bit messed up, and yes, you can still see the sketch layer, but... I'm kinda okay with that. Worst comes to it, I'll just go erase that layer lol!

But yeah, that was done 100% with a mouse! If I'm that okay with mouse only, I think I'll be able to do even better once I get a functioning drawing tablet.

What do you guys think? As far as very early digital attempts go, how is it?

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Thursday Art Walk 314: Dinomite!

In Which I Keep Drawing

The worst thing I could do right now is to stop doing the things that bring me joy and accomplishment. While I know that I'm not the best artist on the face of the planet (my pride and joy are a set of shadowy cityscapes in watercolor and a sketch of a banana in a Jedi robe called "Obi-Wan Banana"), but that's not my aim. I just want to make things that make me smile.

A while ago, I made a small dinosaur from crochet. The pattern was on Stringy Ding Ding, and I love it. If you crochet, you should check her stuff out - it's adorable. I have it sitting on my windowsill, where it silently judges me as I heave myself out of bed in the morning, so of course I had to draw him.

"DinoMite"; crayon on sketchpad; 2020

And yes, if you squint, you can see Dedbert flying above the dino.

If you are having a hard time focusing on whatever you're doing right now (unless you're on break at your Essential Employment), I strongly suggest grabbing some scrap paper and whatever you have that can serve as a writing/drawing implement and scribbling something into existence. Whether it's a photorealistic Ferrari or a potato-faced doodle bro, it will probably help you unwind and draw your mind back from panic. Even just slapping a bunch of lines on a page can be beneficial!

The world is scary right now. Maybe you have to unleash the scary by making scary art. Maybe you have to squash it with silvery landscapes of graphite on the back of an old receipt. Maybe you just want to draw genitals and snicker. Maybe you want a page full of cats and pawprints. Maybe you want a fleet of tanks rolling over a paper bag you brought home from the supermarket last week.

Whatever you make, it's a good thing to make it.

Making things is good, and you should feel good.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Fiber Monday 249: Dinosaur Finito!

In Which I Have Worked Very Hard!

What a day. It's going to be a real nor-easter apparently (hasn't started yet), and I've been running around all day prepping for it. I took back bottles, I helped my mother move lawn furniture indoors and went shopping with her to get some essentials, like bread (we were out!!!), and I've been so busy that I only just now got to take my shower. Thankfully, all that's over with, but there's one thing I've not had a chance to do.

I haven't crocheted today.

But FC! You may exclaim. Doesn't the title of today's blog indicate that you finished making your dinosaur???

I did!

I actually finished it on Tuesday :P

The head and part of the body!

Most of the body!

Look at his cute lil face!

So close to being done!

And here is his body finished. He looks a bit like a tadpole, no?
Also, that's a normal sized colored pencil for scale. The baby is biiiiiig!

Here he has his first spike. I'm so proud of him!
And there's some stuffing back there, too...

My baby is 100% spiked at this point!

Time for his sweet lil feetsies!

Are you ready for possibly the best reveal shot I have ever had for a project? Are you?!

I needed to find a good spot to take the photo and my bed was a hideous mess, everyone on earth was downstairs and in the way, and my dad's room was off limits. So I looked outside at that beautiful Tuesday sky and put my lil dino on the windowsill!

Looooooook at him! He's so stinkin cute!

I am in love with this dinosaur design, so thank you, Stringydingding, for having this pattern available for free on your website, and I hope to one day buy a bunch of your pdfs so that I can support a fellow hooker. Uh... crochet person. We don't really have a cool sounding nickname like "knitter" or "tailor" or "seamstress"... Hm.

Now, I didn't simply work on a dinosaur, no.

I have made 6 snowflakes already. All in one day, in fact!

I'm also working on this Christmas tree for my mother. It has taken me over 4 hours at this point, but I'm nearly done with it!

And I've been continuing work on a very large project that I'm not sure I'll finish this year...

So, I apologize for the very late blog, and I hope to have tomorrow's up at an appropriate hour lol.

Here's hoping that if you're in this Nor'Easter's path that it doesn't cause you or your property harm, that you have ample heat available, that you have all that you need, and that life in general is not cruel to you.

Be safe, be warm.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Fiber Monday 248: DINOSAURS!

In Which I Make a Deceptively Large Amigurumi

So while trundling around les internets on my phone, I found this pattern for an amigurumi dinosaur and thought "that's heckin' cute! I should make one!" And here we are...

Here is a pile of yarn

The first thing I had to do was decide what color to use. I had the most teal, so that's what I chose for the body. It's a very old skein of Caron Simply Soft, I'm pretty sure, so if you've got some to destash, this might be the project for it! After selecting my yarn, I made my magic ring and crocheted the first five rounds of the project.

Due to camera shakage, we're gonna have some blur. Sorry!

I'm only going to take photos every 5 rounds because not only does this person want to sell copies of the pdf (which if I had money, I'd buy it, because this is a stinkin cute design and the name of their website made me smile - stringydingding!!!) they also have photos on their website, so I don't want to usurp their material. This is going to be purely a progress blog for this project :)

Round 10 with small black buttons for eyes!

I'm out of safety eyes now, sadly, so I cannot give this dino proper eyeballs, but these black buttons are pretty cute, if I do say so myself. Also, hello Star Wars pants in the lower left corner...

Round 15, side view

This head is already pretty huge. That's a 4.00mm hook for reference, and this recliner has arms almost as wide as one of my thighs, so... it big.

It real big.

This is gonna be a honkin huge dino!

I'm so excited to get more of this adorable plush finished!

That's gonna be all from me!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Saturday Casual Gaming 227: Tap! Dig! My Museum!

I used to want to be a paleontologist. I was little, Jurassic Park had just come out on VHS, I had the flu so I sounded like a Velociraptor when I coughed... good times. Finding Tap! Dig! My Museum! by Oridio on the Google App Store seemed to be just the thing I needed to feed my dino obsession.

And it was!

So, you start out with an empty, run-down museum and a small bag of cash. You take that money and build a display case, then you go dig for dinos! The digging is a lot of fun.

If really simple

Basically, you're taken to a screen and, with a limited number of moves, you dig into the dirt by tapping on a section. Sometimes you'll find money. Sometimes you'll find fossils. You can watch an ad to get more moves, too, but only once per dig. When you run out of moves (or find all available fossils), you get sent back to your museum with your spoils. The first dinosaur I uncovered was a Velociraptor, but after that some of the choices are... weird but awesome. I'm pretty sure I dug up dinos I'd never heard of before - seriously.

And they're fairly accurate representations!

While you build up your collection, guests will arrive at your museum. They drop money, which you can then use to buy upgrades or fund digs. The upgrades come in five varieties - on your main museum, you can upgrade things buy opening new exhibits, or you can expand your museum. This, sadly, can only be done once so far (as of the writing of this blog), but the developers say they're working on new expansions and upgrades, so that's cool. The other three kinds of upgrade are in the yellow museum button. These will let you fit more people in your museum at a given time, hire more diggers (and thus have more moves per dig), or increase the power of your taps during digs. I tried to maximize my museum perks as quickly as possible, which made digging the larger dinos much easier!

I flipping love spinosaurus!!!

I'm a big fan of cute pixel games like this, and this game has everything I like. It's simple and easy to understand and play, it's pretty to look at, and it's got great music. It even has a camera button to let you take quick screen shots! They save as .png files, which means...

Yes.

The museum shots are from my actual in-game museum! That makes it so much easier to talk about on the internet. No complicated multi-button presses on my phone hoping I'm doing it right and missing the good shots! Just... tap! Done. Save it to my Drive!

I hope a lot more games start doing that!

So yeah, Oridio's Tap! Dig! My Museum! is a nifty game that I can't wait to get updates on. Especially since it only took me 5 days to play out the missions...

If you're looking for a cute game with dinosaurs, museums, and a great sense of accomplishment, try it out!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC