Art 37

Here is the bag, made out of an old umbrella, that I worked so hard on. I sewed 'til my fingers bled! No, I'm exaggerating. It is hand-sewn, however - I get a little carried away with sewing machines - so it took quite awhile. Then it tore, so I had to repair it. That also took quite awhile.

A larger version of this can be seen here.

Stuffed to capacity with newspaper.

On a white sheet, you can see how grey the bag is. This is because the lining is black, and it shows
 through the white a little. You might also be able to make out some faint, vertical, yellowish marks.
They don't wash out - I think they're age marks, or something. The umbrella was at least 20 years old.

I tend to think of it as my cursed bag of holding. It fits an extraordinary number of things, but once within the bag they're difficult to find. During repairs, I added a couple zip pockets, so now it's slightly less cursed.

Meanwhile, last year I took some photos in the backyard, and I've now got around to uploading the one I like best. The critters are cardboard things, packing from some sort of device, or something. I shaped them a little and drew on eyes. I like the sort of hot, over-bright feel of this picture.

A larger version can be seen here.

Art 35

2011 has begun, yaay! And if you add all the digits together, you get 4. I like 4.

I actually made New Years' resolutions this year. Amazing. One of them is to try and get a little more serious about making artwork (as far as resolutions go, that's an inevitable one for me). Also promoting it a little more... That is, trying to stay more active with my deviantart account. :s Yes, that is thus far the reach of my ambition! I have a print account on deviantart, and I'd like to make more of the stuff that's on my computer into prints. And then buy a bunch of samples to show around.

Also I'd really really like to focus more on the making of comics... I think I'll cover a couple walls of my room with old comic books, just so it's always at the peripheral of my attention. That may mean removing the staples - gasp! I have a nice collection of pictures on my wall at the moment, things I've cut out and stuck up. Hm.

Last year(!) I was thinking a little bit about fractals, and the images they can generate. Maths isn't one of my skill sets, so the algorithms used to generate fractals are a bit beyond me, but I find the images pretty fascinating. One in particular I like - the Koch snowflake.

The first four iterations. To learn more about it, click on the link in the last paragraph.

I wanted to do some sort of colourific thing with this, but I couldn't find an equilateral triangle "grid" on my computer, so I decided to play with the quadrilateral type 1 variant instead, which, being quadrilateral, uses squares instead. Hooray! So I'm doing it in Paint, pixel by pixel.

Restrictions on size and what not mean the edge of my quad-t1 kochies (hehe) isn't infinite, but I can reluctantly accept that. As it is, each picture is effectively 1.55 metres square. With that I can get 8 iterations - the 9th iteration would be smaller than one pixel. 1/9th smaller, to be precise. :)

Well, enough of that for now. I've also started work on a wood-carving project, using the now-defunct Xmas tree. I stripped it of branches, and now I'm stripping it of bark. The plan was to make a staff, but it's a bit short, so I'll make a sort of rod, or sceptre-like thing. It's still quite sappy, will have to figure out how to treat it before I start the actual carving. I had no idea until tonight what to carve into it, but now, inspired by my previous art-specific post, I think maybe fish. I like this idea, and will ponder it more.

So, that's two new projects started, without any of the old ones being finished! Ah well. Such is my mode of operation, generally.

In other news, I am indeed still working on the cryptomnesia piece. There are about 500 snips left to import into the gimp file. Also I'm still repairing my handbag... Actually I've finished the actual repairing, and the sewing on of pockets. Now I "just" need to sew the inside to the outside. When it's all nice and complete I may take a photo.

Art 34

Surrounded by art. Every where I look there are examples of art. And design, functional or otherwise, which I tend to consider in the same light as art. The only way for me to not see deliberately created art is to go somewhere wild, and even then the urge to take a photo for use in art later is very hard to resist. It's wonderful.

Here are a few things I've seen around the place that I guess could be called non-intentional art.





Some fish. Tentatively thinking of doing a painting of one these photos.

The shadow of the tree reminded me of veins. In the gardens of a hospital, so kind of appropriate.

Have to admit, this is my favourite. Layers of peeling paint on a wall. Zombie sheep!

In other news, still repairing my handbag. Taking the opportunity to add some pockets to it. Will it ever be done?

Art 33

I've finally(!) finished cutting up the cryptomnesia pictures into pieces, and now I have to stick them all into a gimp file (thankfully I've already started this). There are almost 3000 pieces - 2994, to be precise. I have about 1000 pieces left to import.

Meanwhile, I've been working steadily to repair my enormous handbag. I made it last year out of an old umbrella. Also adding a few improvements. This is a little bit frustrating, because I need to finish it as soon as possible, and therefore am resisting working on almost everything else. Working on the one thing constantly is a little difficult for me.

Art 27

Some time ago - about two weeks, maybe? - I was going to write a post bewailing the loss of a ball of yarn. But I decided first that I'd draw the ball of yarn in Paint. And I thought, hey, I might as well make it look good, put a bit of detail into it. So here it is, two weeks later, and I still haven't finished the bloody picture! Why can't I be satisfied with a few squiggles? Sigh.

Well, here's the story of how I lost my ball of yarn.

I don't usually knit, because I find it inexecrably- er, just a little bit tedious. However, it's quite good for long car rides (I'm a perpetual passenger). On the last few long car rides I've worked on a particular knitting project. I had a ball of yarn, a beautiful rich red. It wasn't twisted quite enough, so I was knitting it into a sort of one-stitch-wide rope. The plan was then to use that to make a handbag or something.

This is where the Paint picture of yarn is supposed to go. Here it is so far, anyway. The blob in the upper left corner is a colour that isn't on the Paint colour pallette thingy. The very thin line is a sort of guide, to remind me where I want the yarn to go. The thick grey lines are knitting needles. The red bits are the yarn!




Anyway. Sitting in the passenger seat, I tucked the ball of yarn between me and the car door. We stopped at a gas station for things*, and I stayed in the car knitting. The purchaser of the things then knocked on my window, wanting to store said things in the back seat. I opened the door, the ball of yarn rolled out, I didn't notice until we arrived at our destination... Poor lost ball of yarn.
* - tasty things


***

In other news, my sister recently disposed of a few paint rags that refused to absorb any more paint. That is, she kindly gave them to me. I'll sew them together into (a handbag or) something.

In other other news, here are the sketches I did a couple weekends ago.



Steadfast tin soldier



Embryo in light bulb





Scooter



Still working on the cryptomnesia piece. It's becoming difficult to work on anything else.