Carving

The usual snail's pace.  Taking a stretch break.  Then back to drawing with knives.

Stretch.

A look at it mirrored and darker.

Taking a break for breakfast.


~*~

Trying to decide how to carve the portcullis.  Whether to leave it dark, or carve it light with shading.  Hmm.

I think I'll do the white line around Fae and then see how the portcullis looks.  I need separation between the two.

Block ~ Cartoon

Correcting some lines on the cartoon.  I don't want to eyeball the paneling.

There's going to be a lot of white in this block.

As long as detail is sufficiently differentiated.

Taking a break.  Carving is compulsive and I need to stretch.

Xmas Card Musings

A bit of a hiatus.  I had a poetry book to get out (semi-annual distraction).  Now it's high time I knuckle down to carving the xmas card.

So today I'll work on shading ~ as in how I'll carve it.  I made a light version of the cartoon to scribble on.  Work out how I'll round the bars, how dark/light I'll make them, etc.  I don't want to start carving without some of this worked out.

Otherwise it's fairly straightforward.  I will want to get a little carved shading into the rotties tho.  Don't want them a solid black.

My Own Coloring Book

Coloring in cartoons ~ working on techniques and colorways.

This is what I'm liking so far.

The rotties and outside the portcullis will be the blackest.  Stone wall and portcullis surround will be light gray with white accents, lightening it up.

I'm thinking 2 blocks ~ one that is just brown with tapped in red and green; the other one all the blacks (may or may not be black lines in the paneling, etc.).

~*~

And now with light sky thru the portcullis.

I think I'm liking that a little better.

~*~

Cropped to card shape.

The Process is Processing

Looking at oodles and oodles of googled images of stone walls and nooks and hearths and paneling. Lots of angled images too.  I go thru a lot of printer paper and ink during this process.

~*~

I don't usually do this, but I've drawn some perspective lines because the photo I'm using is rather acute.

I'm hoping this looks like a doggy-sized portcullis.

Starting to look like something.  ;-]

Move the cookie place down a bit and maybe round the table.

~*~

Screen capture with plate oval.

I'll make the image a tad taller ~ 11.5" ~ on the board.  Probably add to the bottom a tad, so cookie plate isn't right at the bottom.

~*~

So how many blocks and how many colors?

Stone wall, portcullus grate, card outline, dogs will use black.
Paneling, dog accents, table, dog biscuits will be medium brown.
Chiron's collar, plate rim will be green.
Fae's collar, lettering on card will be red.

I can have 2 blocks, one for black and one for brown.  Red and green can be tapped in, probably on the black block.

Try coloring up something like that.

~*~

Better with a larger plate of cookies.

Santa Paws ~ More Sketches

Bill worked out the dimensions for me.  My block is 9"x12" so the image has to be approx. 6.5"x11.5".  I'll make it a bit wider, but it'll be detail that can be easily cropped out of the card image ~ more wall).  Card image is generally extra long to width ( ≈ 4.5"x7").

I'm also thinking of adding something in the foreground ~ say a doggy dish with bone-shaped biscuits for Santa (like a plate of cookies).

I like the plate of cookies.  Gives it foreground interest.

Green trim on the cookie plate balances the green collar.  Anchors the image.

Xmas 2013 ideas

First pass at a sketch for the SH xmas card.

Still working on the surround, but basically it's the rottie pups waiting for Santa Paws at the doggie portcullis.  ;- j

Maybe bows, maybe hats, maybe jingle bells, maybe reindeer antlers.  

Here's another set of sketches.

Cat & Bird Fights

Been googling cat fights and bird fights (those birds are fierce!), getting a feel for my early birds theme.  I'm thinking of a cat and early bird face off, perhaps over a tasty morsel.

This is the fun stage.  Well, the first fun stage.  ;- ]

Leftovers IV

Signed up for Leftovers IV print exchange.  The last couple times I've done long and thin pieces, because that's the size and shape of most of my left over pieces of paper.  But I'm thinking this time I'll make something more postcard or notecard size.  Even artist trading card size.  Something small.

I have a number of smallish blocks from a grab bag order of odd blocks from McClain's some time back.  

Don't have my subject yet, tho on another life line I'm exploring the archaic Southwest.  Maybe something petroglyph-like.  That would play into my general paleo mythos themed pieces.

That's a definite maybe.  ;- p

Carving a Letterbox Stamp

Carving a Letterboxing stamp for a friend of my sister's.

This pink stuff is easy to carve, but just as easy to mess up.  Still, it's not going badly.

It's a design of Live Laugh Love with a ribbon for the L.  It'll look something like this:

Blank Cards Printed

I took advantage of a cybermonday half price deal on vistaprint and got some blank xmas cards printed up from this year's Snowflakes xmas card and last year's Denizens xmas card.

When I can pull myself away from sending out my own xmas cards, I'll get these up on my etsy shop.  I know there's not much time left for this holiday card season, but at least I'll have them for next year.  ;- ]

They came out really nice -- glossy where the original cards were matte finish -- but I think I might like that even more.  The colors are a little richer perhaps, tho the matte finish was more like an actual print.  They both have their good points.

I can offer them as single cards, sets of 6(?), or some of each.  Anyone have any ideas on that?  I expect I can eventually get cards made from all of my past xmas cards, then offer a mixed set.  Something to ponder (as I'm not an up-and-at'em kind of person).  ;- ]

Snowflakes are Carving

Let the carving begin.  A lotta-little lines.  The trick will be to remember the snowflakes and swirl lines are white on blue in the top and blue on white in the bottom!

Chip, chip, chip.  Repeat.

~*~

Another 45 min.  Time to stretch.

~*~

Another carving session.  Stretching.  Think I'll ice the knot at the base of my neck.

*~*

Another session.

And another.  

~*~

More carving.  Listening to Christmas music on Pandora to get in the mood.  ;- ]

Detail.

~*~

Chip-chip-chipping along.

Faux print -- b&w and mirror image of the block to see what it'll look like.  Not bad.

~*~

Another carving session.

Block Prep

Ok, I've got two mismatched blocks, but I can use either one and carve on the back (but it really is time to order more blocks from  http://www.imcclains.com/ ).  

So, do I use the 9"x12" or the 8"x10" block?  They're both 3/8" thick, so there's no problem carivng on both sides.

I guess it depends on how tiny I want to carve my snowflakes.  ;- j

Time to work up the cartoon and see.

Snowflakes and castle sans trees.

And of course I have to pick my snowflakes.

I love snowflakes!  (At a distance.)  ;- >

~*~

Playing with motif placement in PageMaker.  If I want to print out a cartoon and transfer it to the blocks, I have to translate an 9"x12" image to fit an 8.5"x11" sheet of paper.

Where the outside rectangle is the block and the inside rectangle is the sheet of paper.

Of course I need to leave room for my chop (which I might actually carve separately this time).

~*~

Math is my weakest suit, so I'm trying to juggle three sizes:  block, paper, actual card size (5.5"x8.25").

Here's what my cobbled cartoon looks like scaled down to the card size:

Now I can pull this off if the snow fades out to white on the bottom.  This particular image assumes a separate chop, as the top and bottom of the board are represented by the pale gray lines.

I have to keep in mind the wind-marks I want to include.  They can't go below the top or bottom of the board.

Oh well, I can always resort to letting my hubby the math wiz work it out for me.  ;- j  Why else did I marry him?

I haven't done it before, but the title can actually be added when the card is created in vistaprint.