My posts have been few and far between. I hope to break that cycle for a few weeks, but rest assured that I will revert back to my old ways within a month – work is keeping me busy, but so is the designing of a new site! Before summer (fingers crossed) I hope to relaunch my site, to begin anew with a fresh look, proper portfolio and a smartly designed blogged. Fingers crossed.

And so begins one of a handful of posts.

Troll

This character, a ‘half’-troll, is from my in-development-personal-comic-project Tatterhood. As the deuteragonist, he’s irksome, stingy, sensitive, cynical and oh-so-awkward. Why yes, I DID base his personal traits after myself…mainly the awkwardness. Nobody does awkward like me!

So, if you’re wondering what all of this is about, I would recommend reading this.

Yggdrasils has a lot on its shoulders...

This is the digital image that was printed onto transfer paper and applied to a wooden mailbox. The colours may look off (the blue is very vivid for me!) but that’s because this was a CMYK print file, and some of the colours were not too happy about becoming RGB for the screen. I hope to post larger, zoomed-in chunks of the ‘mailbox pieces/characters’ soon. Things are very, very busy at work right now!

Years ago, I painted my mom a mailbox in “my style” (dragons and creatures and the like; she didn’t want flowers or trees, she wanted something I would normally do). It was an acrylic painted wooden mailbox, and she liked it a lot. Close to ten years later, I have tried to do other mailboxes for her, as the original was getting pretty weathered and my art skills had improved. Two (or three) failed mailboxes have come and gone…and now, I finally have created a worthy replacement.

Mailbox, Now with More Norse Fairytale Goodness

I created a digital illustration in Photoshop that was applied to a plain pine mailbox with iron-on transfer paper. This method I used was far from perfect, but I’m really happy with how it turned out. The merging of the iron-transfer paper with the mailbox produced a bit of a wood-bubble-grain-paper texture effect, which I really like

The mailbox is a mesh of norse mythology and fairytales – Yggdrasils (world tree) is the ‘setting/frame’ (you can see the unnamed eagle and Veðrfölnir the hawk at the very top). I threw in my own interpretation of the four stags, and some original characters I designed (based on fairytales) were added for good measure. Tættec is on top of the lid, with a half-troll to her left and her now calf-headed sister to the right. At the sides are two characters, “the Norman Lion” and Cerdic. And in between the two deer in the front panel is Tættec’s goat, Brúsi. I’ll post just the digital image in the weeks to come, along with details about the characters, who are part of my (distant future) comic book/graphic novel/illustrated story Tatterhood.

I used stock from MoonsongStock, xNickixStockx, Sassy-Stock, and LughoftheLongArm as reference for the eagle, the two main deer and the rats (they’re in there!). I had a screen-capture from Robin Hood (Errol Flynn) that I used as ‘arm/deer’ reference for part of Cerdic. And I used a reference from a picture of a headless guy in a red shirt holding a fawn for the Norman Lion pose – for the life of me, I can’t find the source, but I’m determined to dig it up again! I bought the pine mailbox from Country Bear Woodcrafts and the paper from Gold Seal Specialty Papers. It was surprisingly hard to find a plain pine mailbox and 11×17 dark t-shirt iron-on transfer paper that didn’t break the bank!

Whew, that’s a lot of text. I promise, next update there will be more images, less words.

Ah, who am I kidding – there’s going to be text.

It's Hobbes!

…from Calvin and Hobbes, the great comic by Bill Watterson of course.

Self-made pattern – as there isn’t a real stuffed Hobbes out there to buy. A decision (that included not licensing his characters for coffee mugs, plastic figures, and a major motion picture with two sequels, each with their own video game) that I support…but I still wanted my sister to have her own Hobbes, so I made one! (Don’t be mad, Mr. Watterson).

More photos here!

I made my sister a shirt for ol’ Yule time givings.

Calvin and Hobbes Shirt

Based on the beloved, beautiful comic by Bill Watterson, I screened/stenciled a design of one of the most memorable Calvin and Hobbes strips. I was heavily inspired by the fantastic needlepoint of armaine, and one of the saddest shirts in the world. More pictures here!

Gift Giving Idea Number 3!

Bite Me! as Performed by Potatoes

Books! Graphic Novels! Comics! Give the gift of reading – it’s the gift that keeps on giving!

‘Drawn Books’ that I recommend (based on what I have in my collection):

300

Bite Me

Castle Waiting

Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography

Never Learn Anything From History

The Baby-Sitters Club: Kristy’s Great Idea

The Three Musketeers

Watchmen

and (while not graphic novels, these two are very near and dear to me) Dragonfeathers and Tatterhood.

You can find most of these at your local bookstore or comics store (and there’s always online).

Telsa: The Celibate Scientist (by Kate Beaton)

Bite Me! as Performed by Potatoes

A good thing about having a recovering right wrist is I have a lot of reading (sigh, yes, and TV) time. One of the books/graphic novels I have been enjoying as of late is Bite Me! by Dylan Meconis. It’s a funny vampire tale of epic proportions and chickens and I just got my printed copy in the mail last week. You can read it online or buy the printed version; it has a very nice shiny cover, real pages and it gets rid of the complications that are involved in reading a webcomic. Instead of clicking a button, you turn a page! No need to worry about your Internet connection if you do it old school.

As for the image above…well…there was a contest for Bite Me! that I just had to enter. A friend introduced me to the comic long ago and I felt that spending a weekend dressed-up* with painted potatoes and eggs was the best way to show my respects for it…as can be seen here. I must add that later the potatoes were made into mashed garlic taters. (The scene is from this page by the way)

*is it really dressing up if the clothes are from your everyday wardrobe? sigh.

Blue Girl Epilogue

I just realized that I never took any photos of the actual headpiece itself so here is one final page to the Blue Girl collection. This realization happened when I woke up and discovered that people other than my Nana or a lone wandering lost soul had paid a visit to my site. To those who have come (mainly from the Mass Effect Forums) I am honoured by your visit and thank you for your comments and emails. I can only hope that you found the costume/comic informative, pleasing or inspiring. I wish I had taken better photos of the full Liara ensemble; maybe one day I shall try to arrange a ”photo-shoot” and get some decent photos that are not taken when I am feeling and looking rather tired and grouchy (due to sitting down for 3 hours for makeup, 45min on the  sky-train to the concert, 2 hours at the concert and 45 min back on the sky-train).

I am currently working on two other costume/mask projects that are not related to ME, but I am hoping to tackle one (or two!) more Mass Effect costume in the future. Tali’Zorah is the next costume in mind but an ultimate costume goal would be a completion of Wrex. I have Krogan ‘blueprints’ laid out, the only problem is that it would be expensive, and heavy. We shall see; I’m not sure why I make them because I don’t really attend that many conventions and I don’t really “cosplay” (I “just dress up”).

I’ll just have to hope that a costume designer position opens up for a production of Mass Effect: The Musical! Family fun for all with songs like ‘Even Earth Isn’t Safe’, ‘We Will Hold the Line’, ‘Basso Profondo: My Secret is Out’ and ‘Big Stupid Jellyfish,’ With Colm Wilkinson as Wrex performing his famous song ’40,000 For a Whole Set.’

…Are the new viewers gone yet?

Red and White, 1 of 4

Pencil drawing coloured in Photoshop.

This postcard features a character, The Ally, from one of the three comics I have been working on. Red and White is a emotional and personal story that I have been trying to write and draw for the past year or so, and I think it’s finally going somewhere. I originally had the comic set in ancient China (with a mythological twist), but I was drawn to the different clothing, artifacts and architecture of so many different ages that I decided to create my own world influenced by selected dynasties. This card was done a while ago, and I don’t have any others made up, but I have many thumbnails and roughs of the story to work through so hopefully in the months to follow Red and White will begin to unfold.