Christmas Works

Anyone else getting those winter muscle aches and dozing nods (those in the Northern Hemisphere anyways)?  Been getting those a lot lately so sleeping in or having multiple cups of coffee isn't doing it.  According to health articles online, I need to stay warm with extra layers while drinking lots of fluids/water.  Not overstraining your muscles with workouts too is good but with my current job, that's a might bit difficult.

Well, I've been drawing a bit in-between chores and clearing-off DIYs. One of them being my nightgown project. I wanted to make a complementary gown to go with a pink night coat I had for years; figured it would make for a quick project (like my summer dress project went 😁).

1st and 2nd Concepts

The colour scheme is mostly pink/hot pink with a starred pattern and lace.  So about 6 concepts I drew.  I think I'm liking the 3rd & 5th concepts the most.  I'll draw and cut out pattern pieces for the one I'll go with soon enough.

3rd → 4th ↙ 5th → 6th Concepts

I've also got onto my Christmas Card sketches done.  It was hard for me to think up some diverse ideas. Seemed to be tired each time I've work on it, mostly after work or a lot of chores. Maybe too is that I have a hard time thinking of creative ideas when I'm in a time crunch (Should work on that after the holidays). I kept on wanting to draw minimalistic reindeers so I figured to just do that.

This is the finished look of my Christmas Card.  A little bit simple and it was fun to illustrate it.  I've already sent out several printed cards of it to family and friends (or just anyone that I had mailing addresses from).  This is the most Christmas themed thing I did this holiday; I haven't started decorating the house yet with our tree or other decor.  The Holidays for retailers are very customer heavy and can demand extra work hours from their employees.

It'll definitely feel different here for Christmas this year without Dad.  I remember how he would love to see our Christmas Tree all lit up with decorations in the living room.  The most presents we had on it nowadays was small gift cards and some small parcels.  There isn't much for what Mom and I could do for the holidays.  Maybe we could prepare and eat Christmas Dinner.  Maybe I can persuade Mom to drive out to see some of our relatives (if she can get over her worries with highway driving and we can both get the time off together).

Speaking of the Holidays, this post will be the last one of this year.  I'll be posting again in January when there's more available time for artwork.  I suspect that I'll be called on a lot at my job to fill extra shifts and it'll be takin a lot out of me to do that much bagging work for hundreds of customers.  

So, I hope that everyone does have a great and safe Christmas, New Year's and Happy Holidays. As one year comes to a close to a close, another one gears up for new possibilities and new growth.  I definitely hope to see myself in a better position with my life in the next few months.

Some Future Planning and Seasonal Planning

Hey Everyone! Sorry for the late update; I wasn't back home until this evening and wasn't aware that my images weren't on here. How are you faring for the coming winter?  Toronto had already got its first snowfall for the season. Not much had stayed around for long but it’s only the start of dealing with the snow for the next 5 months.  I’ll least have more chances to sip hot drinks from cafes around now.

I had wanted to get more of my Halloween decor plans done back before the end of October but my time-management to balance prep time with work was fluctuated at least. Plus the scarecrow angel had taken the most time to finish. If given the infinite desired time, I would’ve got these made as well.

Wanting to use my excess pile of fabrics, I had the thought of making other smaller scarecrows. Supposedly a bunch of old fabric scraps including some new materials to expand my seasonal decor.  I might’ve already said this but I would like to create/buy a new decoration piece for each year; just like to upkeep the same love for Halloween as my Dad did. As for these thumbnails, I’ll probably be working on them on & off thru the upcoming year so not to be pressed for time for next Halloween.

So Christmas is coming and I usually do a Christmas Card Illustration to mail out to friends & family.  I’ll be doing that again, along with working on other DIYs.  Eventually when a lot of my DIYs done (about 5 or 6 big ones left) and I've mostly purged out anything else that I don't want to be routinely dealing with, I’m going to have to start planning my career path for freelancing my Illustrator skills soon enough.  I have some general idea of direction but I really need to work out the business half of it, plus can't hurt to build up a buffer of savings should when I choose to go full-time again or stop having my part-time job for any reason.

Well, that's enough for now.  Got to get back to trimming away my perpetual To-Do List.

Computer Problems, Marathon Runners and More Halloween Decor

Oye! I'm having a hard time with my computer lately! My Photoshop CS2 via Parallels/Windows XP is slow as molasses (I say that instead of a turtle because I remember how surprisedly fast my late pet turtle Zack was when he wanted to be) and it was just making a simple sketch cleanup look like a hi-res filter application that take an hour at least to apply.

It may be high time that I start replacing or upgrading my computer studio equipment; though a gift from my brother, this 2012 Mac Mini is getting slower each year and these years old art programs aren't keeping up with the latest technology much now. I started looking into what to buy/get though the funding may take a while to get saved up. Cheap alternatives in the meantime?

And that's my personal rant of the week, now onto my work for this past week.

For sketches, I happen to been just getting off from work when the Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon was going by my workplace (Lake Shore & Leslie).

After grabbing a hot latte to drink, I sat on to watch all the runners going by and thought to sketch them while I could. It definitely a challenge to capture the runners' likeness within a minute before they completely out of view.

What I like drawing them the most was getting each runner's movement down on paper. By confession, I did winged some details by guesswork and memory.

I don't usually sketch real people too often; usually it's my made-up characters. This was one of those rare times that you could sketch a stranger without that person feeling uncomfortable of being stared at while being drawn.

Next is my Halloween Decor progress. I got my Scarecrow Angel all done! I chose to add a plaid cloth (originally dish cloths newly bought) with a couple of old throw pillow cases with the indian ink-dyed burlap dress and sew them together as such in the pictures.

A shawl was added as well including a handkerchief to cover the bamboo neck.

The wings were a hassle to not only clip onto her dress but to also to position accurately parallel to the bamboo shaft as well. I managed to get done though.

Getting her hands back onto the sleeves took some hand cross-stitching. 

After putting her old straw stuffing for her arms back in, I've hot-glued more faux leaves to give the look being "stuffed" with more of those leaves like I did for her head and hat.

Lastly, I've also hot-glued some shimmering maple leaf confetti onto her shawl and sleeve ends. To include a reflective element into her dress as I did for her wings and head.

Overall, I'm happy with how she turned out.  Before, she looked like a generic store-bought or a plain homemade craft. Now she looks like she's ready for a party.

The only other decor I made was decorating this store-bought black cat wreath. Originally a black tube-cleaner wrapped around a plastic frame with plastic yellow eyes and whiskers, I took some glitter berries, faux leaves and maple leaf confetti and hot-glued them onto it as such.  So now I have a Halloween Wreath that should grab attention from nearby treat 'n' treaters.

So that's all I got here for now.  This week, I have a pumpkin to carve into a jack o' lantern and may have some more sketches to show later on. Till next week then.

Fall Market, Inktober sketch and Halloween Decor

For this week's showcase of creativity, I did two sketches and work on a seasonal project that I wanted to be done before Halloween.

Leslieville's Flea Market, Simple Pantry

Due to using every day off that I could on clearing off backlogs of projects, I didn't go out much for day trips to outdoor events, let alone do urban sketching. I kept wanting to see this flea market that's in my workplace's neighbourhood, Leslieville, Toronto all summer so I made the effort to see its' last outdoor date for the year.  There weren't too much there, understandably due to the cooler temperature but it was a nice sunny day. There was one stand I really liked so I did my sketch on it.  I even bought one of the vendor's goods.

Inktober Sketch, Day 11 - Prompt: Cruel

I love the idea of inktober, getting to do small improv ink sketches or grander ones depending your time and creativity.  For taking a breather from house chores, I decided to do at least one ink sketch and that day's prompt was "CRUEL".  My main thought for that word while checking emails were seeing Change.org's petition updates on Tyson's cruelty to their chicken breeding.  So seeing a flock of chicken stuffed into a small cage was the sketch I went with (an earlier idea was having a pig stuffed into a rectangle cage that it was bulging thru the gaps).  There's unfortunately a lot of big name companies or farming practices that treats the animals that we'll be eating eventually more like commodities rather the living creatures that they are and it keeps happening often away from the majority of public awareness.  

Finally is my main focus for the week: my old Scarecrow Angel.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to take any "Before" photos of how it looked like before but it was long overdue for a makeover.  I think I first got it when someone was giving it away (maybe back when I was in the Girl Guides) and had used it for Halloween Decor since.  Rain damage and Ink dye run-off plus a bit on the plain side, I wanted to revitalize it for this Halloween. Starting with the head, lifting and tightening her burlap face (giving her literally a facelift 😉) I've hot-glued the burlap in place then repainted her eyes, nose and mouth in acrylic paints, adding some more head bangs with her straw hat.  Her hat was a bit plain so I've decorated it with raffia strands, dollar store decorations like faux leaves, styrofoam glitter berries with twigs and for the heck of it, a small styrofoam lacquer pumpkin. 

Another feature for me to fix was her torso/bust.  It used to have a plastic bag stuffed with newspaper that got thrown out.  For a replacement, I took an old throw pillow that no one really uses and with thick thread, cross-stitched it around the scarecrow angel's pole and shoulder dowling.  Much more permanent than the cheaper materials used before.

I've made more progress than this on it last week but I'll save that progress report for next week.  I have an early morning work shift next and I'm pushing it as it is with getting enough sleep tonight.  Post to ya then.

Winter's Commuters

It certainly had been a while since I've last posted up anything new.  After the holidays (Late December), you would've figured that there would be less hours to fill at a retail store; not for groceries anyways.  Not to sound unappreciated of getting the extra hours still, but it takes you away from many other things going on in your life if overdone. In my case, it's my artwork and online schooling, among household obligations.  

Despite having slim spare time for it, I'm making efforts to keep steady progress on my artwork.  From my most recent TOUSK meet up on Toronto's TTC subway lines, I've started to make ink drawings of people's portraits.  It was easier to sketch the heads than trying to capture the whole bodies, not knowing when fellow passengers will up and go.  I've actually liked how I was capturing interesting head portraits with their winter gear, kind of like they're all dressed up.  Yeah, not really for everyday things but it helps accentuate their appearances, meaning that they look more interesting.

So, aside from that, I'm just trying to keep up with everything (using my timer, set limits on a chore/project per day, etc.) and keeping myself sane yet productive.  Hoping for an early spring with each winter thawing we get (I miss riding my bicycle)!

Summer Break is Over (For most people)

Well, now it's after Labour Day and for most people, it's back from summer vacations and either to work or school!  Then again, work and school aren't really restricted from September to June in Canada or online.

Artscape Wychwood Barns, Farmer's Martket

While practicing my art and self-study my Udemy courses, I'm looking for part-time work! Applied to a few locations already but no luck as of yet. It's not so much as finding work you can do adequate but also being able to travel to a workplace in a reasonable commute time.  Unfortunately, finding creative jobs in Toronto is harder than online when you have to travel about an hour each way to a studio on transit.  One of the pitfalls of living in a suburbia like Scarborough, even when it's in the most South-Western end of it.  I would honestly like to live closer to the downtown where it's more of an artist hub and as soon as I can get enough steady income coming my way, the better.

Customers @ Tim Hortons

Anyways, as far as beefing up my portfolio, I've made some game graphics assets with the intent of a Match-3 game. I've even gone as far as record my work progress on these, made fast-speed art demo videos of them and have their links down below. Some on them aren't posted yet on Youtube as they auto-scheduled for weekly updates.  It's still ongoing the project but I could turn them into my first game, maybe on my own or if I team up with a game programmer that knows Unity or similar. Not right now, but maybe soon or just sell them as assets on a game graphics store.

Pigeon @ Sugar Beach Park

Got other examples of works up for the month, so browse around and I'll be back soon (in October) with any new works or sketches for the month. Hopefully with a job.

Splash Pad @ Sugar Beach Park

ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) @ Queens Way & Bloor St West

Photo of ROM Sketch Site

Youtube Links
Flower Cookie

Star Cookie

Meringue Cookie
Icing Topper

Flower Cookie, 2017

Star Cookie, 2017

Meringue Cookie, 2017

Icing Topper, 2017

A-MAY-ing Sketches & Box Templates

It's been rather eventful this month for me:

• Strained my left knee while hauling two buckets full of beach pebbles for Civic's old pen, turning it into a garden planter. Probably after buying those strawberry plants and the extra soil.
• Went to the TCAF - Toronto Comic Arts Festival and bought 4 volumes of Octopus Pie.
• My brother Jason and my niece Caitlin visited for about 2 weeks; his rowdy, bouncing daughter wanting to always play with me over my parents. Helped her somewhat overcome her fear of pets.
• Went to another TOUSK Meetup at Berczy Park, sketched the new dog fountain on display.
• Got a bad stomachache last weekend, making me have to stay in bed about 2 days except for going out to buy antacids.
• Been catching up on emails, online surveys, book reading, course studies, exercises and miscellaneous after I've gotten better.

So yeah, busy.  I'll be getting even more busy now that I need to get back into my working rhythm. 

Now to show some of the work I've lucky got done over the month:

Vector Template of The Beer Store's Card Stock Carrier

Vector Template of Random Trapezoid Food Box